Nudging citizens through technology in smart cities

In the last decade, several smart cities throughout the world have started employing Internet of Things, big data, and algorithms to nudge citizens to save more water and energy, live healthily, use public transportation, and participate more actively in local affairs. Thus far, the potential and implications of data-driven nudges and behavioral insights in smart cities have remained an overlooked subject in the legal literature. Nevertheless, combining technology with behavioral insights may allow smart cities to nudge citizens more systematically and help these urban centers achieve their sustainability goals and promote civic engagement. For example, in Boston, real-time feedback on driving has increased road safety and in Eindhoven, light sensors have been used to successfully reduce nightlife crime and disturbance. While nudging tends to be well-intended, data-driven nudges raise a number of legal and ethical issues. This article offers a novel and interdisciplinary perspective on nudging which delves into the legal, ethical, and trust implications of collecting and processing large amounts of personal and impersonal data to influence citizens’ behavior in smart cities

Nudging Citizens through Technology in Smart Cities

In the last decade, several smart cities throughout the world have started employing Internet of Things, big data, and algorithms to nudge citizens to save more water and energy, live healthily, use public transportation, and participate more actively in local affairs. Thus far, the potential and implications of data-driven nudges and behavioral insights in smart cities have remained an overlooked subject in the legal literature. Nevertheless, combining technology with behavioral insights may allow smart cities to nudge citizens more systematically and help these urban centers achieve their sustainability goals and promote civic engagement. For example, in Boston, real-time feedback on driving has increased road safety and in Eindhoven, light sensors have been used to successfully reduce nightlife crime and disturbance. While nudging tends to be well-intended, data-driven nudges raise a number of legal and ethical issues. This article offers a novel and interdisciplinary perspective on nudging which delves into the legal, ethical, and trust implications of collecting and processing large amounts of personal and impersonal data to influence citizens’ behavior in smart cities

Steering the aggregative behavior of noncooperative agents:A nudge framework

This paper considers the problem of steering the aggregative behavior of a population of noncooperative price-taking agents towards a desired behavior. Different from conventional pricing schemes where the price is fully available for design, we consider the scenario where a system regulator broadcasts a price prediction signal that can be different from the actual price incurred by the agents. The resulting reliability issues are taken into account by including trust dynamics in our model, implying that the agents will not blindly follow the signal sent by the regulator, but rather follow it based on the history of its accuracy, i.e, its deviation from the actual price. We present several nudge mechanisms to generate suitable price prediction signals that are able to steer the aggregative behavior of the agents to stationary as well as temporal desired aggregative behaviors. We provide analytical convergence guarantees for the resulting multi-components models. In particular, we prove that the proposed nudge mechanisms earn and maintain full trust of the agents, and the aggregative behavior converges to the desired one. The analytical results are complemented by a numerical case study of coordinated charging of plug-in electric vehicles

Managing Misinformation on Social Media: Targeted Newsfeed Interventions and Freedom of Thought

Whether it is being told a particular politician consumes children, or drinking cow urine will cure your disease, or that Jimi Hendrix is alive and well living the good life in Drumnadrochit, misinformation affects societies in myriad ways. Its spread online via social media platforms raises questions concerning how it can be addressed. This article engages with a related problem: Can the use of targeted behavioral interventions on social media newsfeeds to reduce the spread of misinformation be reconciled with the human right to freedom of thought

Getting noncooperative agents to cooperate:nudging and dynamic interventions

Due to the strong interconnection between modern engineering systems and their users, performance of these systems heavily rely on the user behavior. Therefore, uncoordinated user behavior can deteriorate the overall performance and entail undesired outcomes. To address this problem, this thesis studies the problem of designing suitable interventions that provide coordination among noncooperative agents/players. We investigate the development of suitable interventions in several setups and propose mechanisms that achieve a desired outcome. The first part of the thesis focuses on altering the aggregative behavior of noncooperative price-taking agents towards a desired stationary or temporal behavior. We address this problem by introducing a nudge framework, where a system regulator modifies the behavior of the agents by providing a price prediction signal. In the second part of the thesis, we focus on designing intervention mechanisms that steer the actions of noncooperative players in network games to the social optimum. We investigate different cases based on the knowledge of the system regulator on the game as well as constraints on the actions and interventions. The third part of the thesis deals with the problem of Nash equilibrium seeking in aggregative games. We develop a distributed algorithm where the players communicate to their neighboring players. The robustness and privacy preserving properties of the algorithm are also analyzed

Exploring Digital Social Norms Nudges in E-Grocery: Typical Consumer Testimonials with a Warm Glow

Digitization offers several possibilities to alter consumer decisions to support social concerns. The objective of this study is to examine the impact of personalized digital social norm nudges on consumer decisions enriched with the theory of warm glow on e-grocery buying decisions with the aim of supporting social projects. Specific pro-social behaviors targeted were supporting fair payment of the producers of grocery goods, social inclusion projects and initiatives against poverty by deciding for a specific choice option. A between-subjects experiment was performed with the help of a questionnaire using a mock-up mobile grocery store to measure product choices. Results showed that claims supporting pro-social initiatives have a significant impact on buying decisions. Perceived product recommendation influenced our model positively, while we had a negative price impact. The study suggests that warm glow theory and enriched social norm nudges are effective tools for behavior change towards social initiatives

Digital Nudging: Altering User Behavior in Digital Environments

Individuals make increasingly more decisions on screens, such as those on websites or mobile apps. However, the nature of screens and the vast amount of information available online make individuals particularly prone to deficient decisions. Digital nudging is an approach based on insights from behavioral economics that applies user interface (UI) design elements to affect the choices of users in digital environments. UI design elements include graphic design, specific content, wording or small features. To date, little is known about the psychological mechanisms that underlie digital nudging. To address this research gap, we conducted a systematic literature review and provide a comprehensive overview of relevant psychological effects and exemplary nudges in the physical and digital sphere. These insights serve as a valuable basis for researchers and practitioners that aim to study or design information systems and interventions that assist user decision making on screens

The Effects of Informational Feedback on the Energy Consumption of Online Services: Some Evidence for the European Union

Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) have scarcely been considered in studies on green consumption. Likewise, little attention has been paid to the effects of informational feedback on household energy ICT-related consumption. This paper aims to fill these gaps in the literature. Using microdata from a representative sample of the European Union population, this paper analyzes, in a novel way, whether the provision of information about the energy consumed by online services would make internet users change to a greener ICT consumption behavior. To assess this issue, Heckman type selection models are estimated. The results show that people’s concerns about environmental problems, their environmental activism and self-perceived efficacy as consumers are directly related to the influence that information provision exerts. We also find that frequent internet users and those with better digital skills are more willing to change their online behavior if given information on energy consumption

RoadAhead - Removing Uncertainty in Travel. Creating a Data Warehouse for Green Transportation Nudging

This paper describes a data warehouse approach to environmentally friendly transportation nudging. Transportation makes up a significant part of global carbon emissions. These emissions impacts both the climate and the health of individuals. As such, efforts should be done to address transportation patterns and habits. In addition to the reduction of air pollution, making people more active through active transportation has health benefits of its own. Nudging is a tool meant to affect a person's choice in a non-coercive manner. An example of a transportation nudge is giving reminders of when a bus to a chosen destination is close to a nearby bus stop. The goal of this project is to nudge people to use healthier and greener transportation options by providing certainty in travel. We believe that we can affect a person's choice by providing them with relevant information about their travel paths. In this thesis research into relevant data sources are investigated and an initial system was created to reach the goal of this project. An IoT device was also developed and tested for this purpose. The system created provides information relevant for in-city traveling based on data analysed from multiple sources. In addition to the initial system, research into possible enhancements and the future of the system is investigated

Data management for platform-mediated public services: Challenges and best practices

Data harvesting and profiling have become a de facto business model for many businesses in the digital economy. The surveillance of individual persons through their use of private sector platforms has a well-understood effect on personal autonomy and democratic institutions. In this article, we explore the consequences of implementing data-rich services in the public sector and specifically the dangers inherent to undermining the universality of the reach of public services, the implicit endorsement of the platform operators by government, and the inability of members of the public to avoid using the platforms in practice. We propose a set of good practices in the form of design principles that infrastructure services can adopt to mitigate the risks, and we specify a set of design primitives that can be used to support the development of infrastructure that follows the principles. We argue that providers of public infrastructure should adopt a practice of critical assessment of the consequences of their technology choices.Comment: 19 page