Discovery Early Career Researcher Award - Grant ID: DE130101577
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$374,057.00
Summary
Retail price promotions in Australia: are consumers really better off? The number and variety of retail price promotions can confuse consumers, leading to poor purchase decisions. This project will explore how promotions affect consumer choices, with a view to improving consumers' understanding and the use of retail promotions to their advantage.
Wicked defaults: how to overcome the dark side of choice architecture. This project aims to investigate how defaults and product complexity might be used to exploit consumers in environments like private insurance where consumers are prone to making systematic errors. Defaults are used to nudge individuals into socially beneficial actions such as increasing their retirement savings and joining organ donor lists. However, in the hands of firms, defaults can also be used to exploit consumers by en ....Wicked defaults: how to overcome the dark side of choice architecture. This project aims to investigate how defaults and product complexity might be used to exploit consumers in environments like private insurance where consumers are prone to making systematic errors. Defaults are used to nudge individuals into socially beneficial actions such as increasing their retirement savings and joining organ donor lists. However, in the hands of firms, defaults can also be used to exploit consumers by encouraging choices that help the firm but disadvantage consumers. The project intends to study experimentally whether exploitation can be reduced via competition and reputation building systems based on consumer feedback.Read moreRead less