Dark defaults: How choice architecture steers political campaign donations.

ABSTRACT: In the months before the 2020 U.S. election, several political campaign websites added prechecked boxes (defaults), automatically making all donations into recurring weekly contributions unless donors unchecked them. Since these changes occurred at different times for different campaigns, we use a staggered difference-in-differences design to measure the causal effects of defaults on donors' behavior. We estimate that defaults increased campaign donations by over $43 million while increasing requested refunds by almost $3 million. The weekly default only impacted weekly recurring donations, and not other donations, suggesting that donors may not have intended to make weekly donations. The longer defaults were displayed, the more money campaigns raised through weekly donations. Donors did n

SUBMITTER: Posner N 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10556642 | biostudies-literature | 2023 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature