NudgeMe study 2: personalized digital (Just-in-Time) nudges and transparency effects

This lab study assessed the impact of transparency on the effectiveness and mechanisms of personalized digital “just-in-time” (JIT) nudges for promoting healthier food choices online. Research Questions: Does transparency moderate effects of personalized (i.e., user-matched) digital JIT nudges on healthier food choice (i.e., nudge effectiveness and proportion of healthier food purchases)? To what extent does perceived acceptability, experienced autonomy, and psychological reactance differ between transparent versus non-transparent forms of personalized (i.e., user-matched) and non-personalized (i.e., mismatched) digital JIT nudges? The study had a fully between-subjects design with Nudge Personalization (Non-personalized versus Personalized) and Nudge Transparency (Non-transparent versus Transparent) as experimental factors. In total, there were 4 treatment arms (P-T-; P+T-; P-T+; P+T+). Participants completed an online grocery shopping task on a mock smartphone retail application (the MAND app), and answered a series of questionnaires (Qualtrics).