Читать книгу Sustainable Management for Managers and Engineers - Группа авторов - Страница 33

People are frequently passive and tend to maintain the status quo, particularly when a decision is difficult and produces permanent or lasting results. The psychological phenomenon known as conservatism or status quo was identified by Edwards [EDW 68]. Conservatism or the status quo is observed in many decision problems in which individuals demonstrate a predisposition to what has already been established. The status quo can result from a decision, delaying a decision, or simply the inability to decide – also referred to as decision paralysis. The theory of choice under conflict by Tversky and Shafir [TVE 92] argues that the decision to postpone action or to take no action becomes more frequent when several attractive options exist. An individual is more likely to delay a decision or search for new alternatives when the conflict between alternatives is high because the alternatives are difficult to contrast (for instance, one alternative may have simultaneously more advantages but also more disadvantages when compared to the alternative options). The more alternatives there are to consider, the more difficult it will be to rank choice preferences, and the longer a decision is delayed, the more likely a person is to continue to hesitate, therefore maintaining the status quo.

Defaults work well for passive individuals who struggle to make a decision. Using defaults as the status quo makes people adhere simply because they do not need to take any action. Automatic enrolment works well for retirement planning, automatic saving planning, immediate bill charging or credit card payment. By the same order of ideas, presumed consent removes the burden of the decision. Organ donation is one example of presumed consent that does not require any action and also yields substantial results.

Despite the benefits of defaults, many people defend the importance of active decision-making because it ensures that they will be responsible for their choices. For instance, the banning of pre-ticked boxes on websites tends to become the rule. In 2009, the European Union Directive on Consumer Rights prohibited pre-ticking for charging extra payments. Additionally, in 2019, the Court of Justice of the European Union determined that active consent is required for a website to store cookies on user devices. A pre-ticked box, that users can actively deselect to opt-out, is not considered a valid form of consent; instead, affirmative (opt-in) consent is required. However, in general, active consent is often obtained in a routine and distracted way by ticking a box on a form. It is a slightly different way to drive the same result, where there is tenuous involvement of the individual. Personal data protection policies require active consent, and although ticking a box on a form is considered active consent, it does not genuinely engage the individual. It assumes awareness but is mainly based on presumed trust and routine clicking (namely, the unread rules of data protection).