Influencing interaction: Development of the design with intent method

Persuasive Technology has the potential to influence user behavior for social benefit, e.g. to reduce environmental impact, but designers are lacking guidance choosing among design techniques for influencing interaction. The Design with Intent Method, a ‘suggestion tool’ addressing this problem, is introduced in this paper, and applied to the briefs of reducing unnecessary household lighting use, and improving the efficiency of printing, primarily to evaluate the method’s usability and guide the direction of its development. The trial demonstrates that the DwI Method is quick to apply and leads to a range of relevant design concepts. With development, the DwI Method could be a useful tool for designers working on influencing user behavior

Discrimination by Customers

Customers discriminate by race and gender, with considerable negative consequences for female and minority workers and business owners. Yet anti-discrimination laws apply only to discrimination by firms, not by customers. We examine efficacy and privacy reasons for why this may be so, as well as changing features of the market that, by blurring the line between firms and customers, make current law increasingly irrelevant. We conclude that, while there are reasons to be cautious about regulating customer behavior, those reasons do not justify acceding to customer discrimination altogether. To open a discussion of the regulatory options that take account of the most significant concerns, we offer a modest proposal. This proposal does not create a legal obligation on the part of customers themselves, but rather requires firms that already have nondiscrimination obligations to do more to reduce the occurrence, and consequences, of discrimination by customers

From Dark Patterns to Digital Sludging – Mapping the Ethical Debate on Controversial Persuasive System Design

Guiding individual decision-making in digital environments through persuasive system design (PSD) is a powerful tool. While some forms of PSD such as digital nudging are based on libertarian paternalism and mostly considered ethically acceptable, other forms have been criticized for violating user autonomy or disadvantaging users. Such “controversial PSD” has been labelled inconsistently in the literature, for example as dark patterns or (digital) sludging. Thus, Information Systems (IS) research currently lacks a common vocabulary and conceptual clarity which impedes realizing the potential of PSD in research and practice. To address this issue, we present first results of a systematic literature review on controversial PSD. By compiling an overview of prevalent concepts, this study identifies four focal points of the ethical debate on PSD (intentions, strategies, outcomes, process) and derives implications and a research agenda for IS research

Designers' Understanding of Changing Human Behaviour

A review of design models for behaviour change established that although design with an intent to change human behaviour is a topic under discussion, there is a need to understand better the perceptions that professional spatial designers hold on human behaviour and how to influence it. Therefore this thesis aimed to identify designer’s perceptions on what can change human behaviour [RQ1], to isolate what may inform their perceptions [RQ2], and to establish in what ways these perceptions compare with existing human behaviour theory [RQ3]. Multifaceted interviews were conducted with spatial designers who self-identified as practising in Design for Behaviour Change [DfBC]. Within method triangulation and thematic analysis identified nineteen distinct experiential concepts which indicate how designers think that user-occupants might experience intentional design. These concepts have been connected to human behaviour theory to identify some theories that can inform design for behaviour change. In addition the analysis identified four mitigating factors and five perception determinants that inform real world design strategies for behaviour change. Synthesis of these findings represents an entirely different way of thinking about the phenomenon of DfBC in that it separates “what” (the experiential concept) from “why” (human behaviour theory) to make sense of it. Coupling an experiential concept with an applicable human behaviour theory creates a behavioural lever that better targets specific behaviour. Some of the theories can influence more than one behaviour factor depending upon the experiential concept that is applied in the design. It is the behavioural levers (the combination of an experiential concept with a human behaviour theory) that creates a more complete understanding of DfBC. The results are diagrammed in a framework for designers and researchers to use.Cambridge International Trust Prince Charles C. T. Taylor Foundatio

Consumer Preferences for Fruit and Vegetables with Credence-Based Attributes: A Review

credence goods, consumer preferences and attitudes, sustainable fruit and vegetables, consumer research., Agricultural Finance, Consumer/Household Economics, Demand and Price Analysis, Food Consumption/Nutrition/Food Safety, Institutional and Behavioral Economics, Marketing, Productivity Analysis,

Sustainable consumption: towards action and impact. : International scientific conference November 6th-8th 2011, Hamburg - European Green Capital 2011, Germany: abstract volume

This volume contains the abstracts of all oral and poster presentations of the international scientific conference „Sustainable Consumption – Towards Action and Impact“ held in Hamburg (Germany) on November 6th-8th 2011. This unique conference aims to promote a comprehensive academic discourse on issues concerning sustainable consumption and brings together scholars from a wide range of academic disciplines. In modern societies, private consumption is a multifaceted and ambivalent phenomenon: it is a ubiquitous social practice and an economic driving force, yet at the same time, its consequences are in conflict with important social and environmental sustainability goals. Finding paths towards “sustainable consumption” has therefore become a major political issue. In order to properly understand the challenge of “sustainable consumption”, identify unsustainable patterns of consumption and bring forward the necessary innovations, a collaborative effort of researchers from different disciplines is needed

THE ROLE OF CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY IN CONSUMER BEHAVIOUR: AN UNRESOLVED PARADOX

Business activity and consumption activities are recognised as impacting, often negatively, on the environment. The challenge of ‘satisfying the needs of the present generation without compromising the chance for future generations to satisfy theirs’ requires, however, contributions by all societal actors. A growing number of firms “overcomply” with environmental regulation for several reasons. Firms satisfy consumer demand and try to shape that demand. In doing so, they may create a taste for environment protection and sustainability. Corporate social responsibility has received considerable attention. The concept of ‘consumer social responsibility’ has received comparatively little attention probably because of the dominance of the notion of consumer sovereignty. If consumers’ perception of corporate social responsibility practices drives their purchase behaviour, firms are motivated to invest in socially responsible practices. However, there exists a wide gap between positive attitudes toward social responsibility and actual purchase behaviours. This paper tries to shed some light on what affects individuals’ perceptions about their responsibilities as citizens/consumers and their consumption behaviour.Environment, Sustainability, Corporate Social Responsibility, Consumer Sovereignty, Consumer Social Responsibility, Preferences, Social norms

The basic homework on basic income grants

It is important to stress that this paper's aim is not to argue substantively against a basic income grant policy. Rather, it proposes that the necessary homework has to be identified first; then appropriate research conducted as the second step; before, thirdly, any policy advocacy is justified. This paper aims at the first task, to raise the questions judged still outstanding.

Consumer Power to Change the Food System? A Critical Reading of Food Labels as Governance Spaces: The Case of Acai Berry Superfoods

This article argues that the marketing claims on food labels are a governance space worthy of critical examination. We use a case study of superfood açaí berry products to illustrate how marketing claims on food labels encapsulate dominant neoliberal constructions of global food systems. These marketing claims implicitly promise that by making careful choices consumers can resist and redress the ravages of unbridled global capitalism. Food labels suggest that consumers can use market signals to simultaneously govern our own selves and the market to ensure sustainable, fair, and healthy consumption. In response, this article develops, justifies and applies a socio-legal approach to researching food chain governance which uses the food label as its unit of analysis and traces from the micro level of what the everyday consumer is exposed to on a food label to the broader governance processes that the food label both symbolizes and effects. We demonstrate our approach through a “label and chain governance analysis” of açaí berry marketing claims to deconstruct both the regulatory governance of the chain behind the food choices available to the consumer evident from the label and the way in which labels seek to govern consumer choices. Our analysis unpacks the nutritionist, primitivist undertones to the health claims made on these products, the neo-colonial and racist dimensions in their claims regarding fair trade and rural socio-economic development, and, the use of green-washing claims about biodiversity conservation and ecological sustainability. Through our application of this approach to the case study of açaí berry product labels, we show how food labels can legitimize the market-based governance of globalized food chains and misleadingly suggest that capitalist production can be adequately restrained by self-regulation, market-based governance and reflexive consumer choices alone. We conclude by suggesting the need for both greater deconstruction of the governance assumptions behind food labels and to possibilities for collective, public interest oriented regulatory governance of both labelling and the food system