Revista de Administração Contemporânea

e220098

Authors: Cristiana Cerqueira Leal, Ines Branco-Illodo, Benilde Maria do Nascimento Oliveira, Luisa Esteban-Salvador

The architecture of choice is present in everyday life, and the ways in which decisions are made have become increasingly complex. This special issue responds to the need to explore the complexities of nudging and choice architecture in the current environment. Decisions can be decomposed into a diverse and intricate process of decision-making. Individuals are required to navigate in successive frames of choice and optimize their decisions, while facing limitations of time, information, and brainpower to process options of choice and come out with a decision. For instance, we make over 200 food-related decisions a day. Some of these decisions are deliberate and thoughtful, but the vast majority is made through a very short conscious period of liberation, automatically, using rules of thumb or as a habit. In fact, 45% of daily behaviors are out of habit and tend to be repeated in similar contexts. Habits are shortcuts that do not guarantee the best decision every time, but that may work quite well for triggering a fast response, which means that either good or bad habits tend to be repeated. Cumulative choices have consequences, and they interact and influence subsequent decisions that tend to be repeated over time.

e200421

Authors: Pedro Brandão Graminha, Luís Eduardo Afonso

Objective: this paper analyzes how framing, anchoring, and certainty effects may affect the behavior of the consumer of auto insurance. Methods: an experiment was carried out, with the face-to-face application of six versions of a questionnaire with 14 questions, for 163 respondents from an educational institution. Questions were prepared to analyze the existence of the framing effect, the anchoring effect, and the certainty effect, in addition to the deductible effect (present in several insurance products). The theoretical framework of the paper is the behavioral economics. Results: younger people, singles, and men are more prone to risk. Although the findings in general corroborate the evidence in the literature, the results of the certainty effect were contrary to expectations. The payment of the deductible increased the respondents’ risk aversion. Conclusions: the existence of biases and heuristics can cause the purchase of insurance to occur in a non-optimal way. Knowledge of the decision-making process is important for insurers and consumers. It is also relevant for regulators, in order to subsidize measures aimed at market efficiency and consumer protection, through the design of an appropriate choice architecture.

e210033

Authors: Ana Luize Correa, Maria Clara Figueiredo Dalla Costa Ames, Marcello Beckert Zappellini

Objective: the aim of this study is to discuss nudges in the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic context, bringing back some reflections on ethics and revising them in the light of the new setting imposed by the pandemic. Theoretical approach: the theoretical framework of Behavioral Economics was the basis for nudges’ analysis, while utilitarianism, deontology, and virtue ethics were the classic moral theories used to reflect on ethical aspects. Methods: we undertook a literature review about nudges searched through the latest studies about this subject applied to COVID-19 mitigation. In the ethical discussion section, we used classical references to articulate the nudge theory with the following moral theories: utilitarianism, deontology, and virtue ethics. Results: our findings indicate that the trend intervention during the pandemic is ‘nudging messages’ and ‘increase people’s commitment,’ mainly to nudge people toward the desired behavior and increase policy adherence. Many experiments did not show significant results, and some drawbacks in policies’ applications indicate that nudges might be revised in crisis scenarios, such as a pandemic outbreak. The ethical discussion section relates three moral theories that justify some of the nudge’s aspects. Conclusions: this paper showed some flaws and inconsistencies in nudge theory and its application during the pandemic that can be solved by discussing ethical aspects. We suggest that connecting these problems with moral views might be a solution for some deadlocks found in the nudge theory.