Nudge

Nudges, one of the rapidly growing law-making and public policy tools, are considered by their proponents to have a generally neutral effect on autonomy. Our study is the first to test nudges under the prism of Self-Determination Theory, a motivational theory which posits that autonomy is a basic psychological need. We focus on a specific type of nudge, defaults, and test it within the context of making a choice among a hypothetical set of insurance programs for post-graduate students. Results show that the experience of an Internal Perceived Locus of Causality (I-PLOC) is negatively affected by defaults when the number of options is low but there is no effect when it is high. In other words, people are less likely to view themselves as the origin of their choices when defaults are in place and when options are manageable. The experience of an I-PLOC has a positive effect on self-regulation and vitality, partially mediated by perceived competence. We suggest that since even mild manipulations show an undermining effect on autonomy, the so-called ‘libertarian paternalistic’ interventions should be evaluated on the basis of their effect on basic need satisfaction, self-regulation and vitality, all of which are associated with autonomy according to Self-Determination Theory.

Nudges are popular types of interventions. Recent years have seen the rise of 'norm-nudges'-nudges whose mechanism of action relies on social norms, eliciting or changing social expectations. Norm-nudges can be powerful interventions, but they can easily fail to be effective and can even backfire unless they are designed with care. We highlight important considerations when designing norm-nudges and discuss a general model of social behavior based on social expectations and conditional preferences. We present the results of several experiments wherein norm-nudging can backfire, and ways to avoid those negative outcomes.

EMERGING TECHNOLOGIES, LAW AND POLICIES: TELEMATICS, INSURANCE, AND ROAD SAFETY
QATAR UNIVERSITY, CENTER FOR LAW AND DEVELOPMENT
October 2-3, 2022
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In recent years, there are growing concerns about emerging technologies and, more in general, on the impact of science and technology on the society as a whole. Science and technology are often perceived as negative, elitist and consequently disputable at the point of creating dissent and distrust in increasing shares of the population. This type of dissent can be showed against Governments, or multinational companies possessing the technology or exploiting it for commercial reasons. In addition, there are also protests and contestations on how certain technologies collect information and use it for different scopes than the ones for which they have been collected.

By contrast, science and technology have also essential roles in pursuing the improvements of the society, granting access to technology is an extremely important tool for educational purposes in developing and developed countries, it can save lives when directly implemented in the health sector in both the rich and poor countries or regions or when they facilitate access to water or food or energy in countries where this access is not available to all, in particular the most vulnerable groups in the poorest or most disadvantaged countries.

In COVID-19 times, among the most important health crisis around the world, the World Health Organization (WHO) still lists the death by road accidents, especially among adults as a growing concern. According to the global status report on road safety 2018 by World Health Organization, deaths from road traffic crashes have increased to 1.35 million a year (average of 3 700 people dying on the world’s roads every day). One of the saddest statistics revealed in this report is that road accident is the number one cause of death for children and young adults globally. There are several reasons why adults are involved in fatal road accidents: (1) over-confident, (2) poor assessment of hazard, (3) prevalent risk taking, (4) speeding, (5) not wearing seat belts, (6) mobile phone usage and (7) driving at night. Almost all of these factors are behavioral related, which are improvable through well-designed interventions. Today, almost everyone uses a smart hand phone, especially youths. These smarts phones are equipped with accurate built-in GPS and are portable telematics devices.
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Based on the above literature, the main aim of this call for papers is to address telematics and road safety topics to reduce risky driving behavior amongst drivers. This can occur through a feedback mechanism customized for each driver based on risk profiling through obtained telematics data. Artificial intelligence will be designed in the feedback mechanism to provide such customized feedback. The secondary aim will be to create indirect interventions through the usage of telematics data for traffic violations citations and UBI without infringing data security and privacy.
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In addition, this conference wants also to address which instruments and means can be enacted to insure for autonomous vehicles more broadly and the extent to which the use of certain insurance technologies (like telematics) is going to increase inequality and discrimination against those from lower socio-economic levels.
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Based on the aforementioned, this call for papers is seeking contributions addressing the following topics with a focus on regulations, policies, science and technology at domestic, international, comparative and transnational perspective:

The Relations among Science, Technology and Society
Critical Theories on Science and Technology
Insurance Companies, Regulatory Authorities and Telematics
Blockchain Technologies, Autonomous Vehicles and the Insurance Industries
Obligations of the Insurer and the Insured in Autonomous Vehicles
Pricing and Compensation for Injury Caused by Autonomous Vehicles
Balancing the Use of Insurance Technologies (including telematics), Equality Principles and Non-Discrimination
Scientific Developments for Existing Mobile/Smartphone Application in Road Safety
Mobile Applications (apps) that is able to monitor driving behavior with an artificial intelligence (AI)
Nudging, Behavioral Sciences changes in drivers
Interventions of risky driving behavior by using feedback messages from telematics devices
Social sciences in using telematics devices for direct behavior interventions
Legal developments from the perspective of using telematics devices for traffic violations and usage-based insurance
National Insurance Laws Applicable to Telematics
Drafting of Changes to National and International Policies related to the use of telematics and road safety
Road Safety as a Public Health Issue
Privacy concern in terms of data sharing (data handled by 3rd party), especially driving data that could be used against them (accident claims purpose or causing accidents)
Data security aspects: (a) issues with “being monitored”, (b) how open are drivers to having their behavior monitored, (c) data being used by law enforcement or criminal/civil actions
Admissibility of telematics data for legal matters – especially traffic violations (evidence of authenticity)
Should insurance be Usage Based Insurance as a means to promote road safety Innovation.
New Technological Developments Through Citizen’s Science in a Comparative Perspective
Business and Human Rights, Industry Standards and Regulations, Impact Investing
The Role of Intellectual Property, Technology Transfer and Know-How
Bridging the Gap Between Business and Government
Public-Private Partnerships
The Role of Public Administration and the Law in Questioning and Supervision the So-Called “Disruptive Technologies”
Third World Approaches to International Law Regarding IP Law and Technology
Any other topic that is of relevance to this call for papers
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Venue and Dates
A conference will take place online.

Applications
Applications must be submitted by July 30,2022 via email to the attention of Imad Antoine Ibrahim ([email protected])  and Paolo Davide Farah ([email protected])  and also to the following email address: [email protected]

Please include the following information:
•    The author’s name and affiliation;
•    A 300-word abstract [Word file or PDF];
•    The author’s CV, including a list of relevant publications, if applicable;
•    The author’s contact details, including e-mail address and phone number;

Eligibility
The international conference will take place in person, on the premises of the Qatar University, Center for Law and Development (CLD)on October 2-3, 2022

‍Publication Opportunities
The organizers have plans to publish the contributions and intend to submit a book proposal to such publishers as Palgrave MacMillan or other prestigious international publishers.

Conference Chairs
Imad Antoine Ibrahim, Qatar University, College of Law, Center for Law and Development (CLD), Doha, Qatar.

Paolo Davide Farah, West Virginia University, John D. Rockefeller IV School of Policy and Politics, West Virginia, United States and gLAWcal – Global Law Initiatives for Sustainable Development, UK.

‍Organizing Institutions
The international conference is organized by Qatar University, Center for Law and Development (CLD), Qatar. The event is in collaboration with gLAWcal - Global Law Initiatives for Sustainable Development, UK, West Virginia University, Rockefeller School of Policy and Politics, WVU Eberly College Interdisciplinary Research Collaborative on Global Challenges and Local Response Initiative, USA and the American Society of International Law (ASIL) Interest Group on International Law and Technology.

Crimes defined as “acts attracting legal punishment” are injurious to the community because they violate moral rules (Blackburn, 1993). However, not all crimes are deemed worthy of a custodial sentence. For example, the criminal act of shoplifting usually only results in jail time for repeated offences (Doughty, 2006). And research indicates that the threat of imprisonment may not be an effective deterrent for potential shoplifters (Gonnerman, 2004). The notion that shoplifting is detached from the victim (Wilkes, 1978, Ecenbarger, 1988) and common to all socioeconomic classes affords the perception that shoplifting is a “victimless crime” to many.

In this paper we suggest an alternative approach to tackling the problem. We examine whether deterrents engaging ‘nudge theory’ (Thaler and Sunstein, 2008) can discourage shoplifting. We review ‘design against crime’ literature and compare case studies to explore a new approach to preventing crime, using nudge as a theoretical framework.

Our paper discusses how ‘rationality’ may influence criminal behaviour; that individuals indulge a “moment” of rational thinking before acting and how contemporary ‘design against crime’ techniques manipulate this thought-process to deter criminal behaviour. We argue that ‘nudge theory’ provides an interesting antithesis. To design against shoplifting using the theory of “nudge” we assert that people make choices non-rationally and can be deterred from situational crimes by designing environments with different contextual cues (Bonell et al., 2011) that deter crime.

We call upon the design research community to discuss; debate and design with nudge theory as a preventative approach to shoplifting.

Ο τρόπος που οι άνθρωποι παίρνουν τις αποφάσεις τους μέσω της καταναλωτικής και κοινωνικής συμπεριφοράς σε οποιαδήποτε έκφραση της ζωής τους, έχει γίνει συχνά αντικείμενο μελετών. Στον αντίποδα η Συμβουλευτική, δημιουργήθηκε στις αρχές του 20ου αιώνα και εξαπλώθηκε ραγδαία, ως κοινωνικός θεσμός.
Διά της παρούσας εργασίας, θα μελετηθούν τα Συμπεριφορικά Οικονομικά ως ένας νέος κλάδος που συνδυάζει την Οικονομική Επιστήμη με όρους και πειράματα κυρίως από την επιστήμη της Ψυχολογίας. Θα επιχειρηθεί η μελέτη των γνωστικών, κοινωνικών και συναισθηματικών επιρροών στη συμπεριφορά των ανθρώπων. Θα διερευνηθεί επίσης η Συμβουλευτική που αποτελεί μια υποστηρικτική διαδικασία που αναπτύσσεται ανάμεσα στον σύμβουλο και τον συμβουλευόμενο, υποβοηθώντας το άτομο να αντιμετωπίσει αποτελεσματικά τα προβλήματα της ζωής του, χρησιμοποιώντας θεωρίες και τεχνικές κυρίως της Ψυχολογίας, καθώς και ο συνδυασμός αυτών των δύο αλλά και των δυνατοτήτων, της δυναμικής που θα δημιουργηθεί και των εν δυνάμη ωφελειών που θα προκύψουν για τον άνθρωπο και την κοινωνία.

Nudges are psychologically informed tools designed to promote behavioral change in order to
improve health and well-being. In this review we focus on three areas of concern: theory, evidence
base, ethics. We begin by discussing the problems arising from the theoretical framework that
nudges are based on and propose an alternative framework that helps to classify nudges into two
types (Type 1 and Type 2). We then evaluate the evidence for nudges in the health domain,
drawing attention to critical empirical issues (internal and external reliability) that explain the
limited evidence base for their effectiveness. The review ends with an examination of the
implications of the theoretical and empirical issues we discussed with respect to current debates
regarding the ethics of nudge.

Norms and nudges are both popular types of interventions. Recent years have seen the rise of `norm-nudges' - nudges whose mechanism of action relies on social norms, providing or eliciting social expectations. Norm-nudges can be powerful interventions, but they can easily fail to be effective and can even backfire unless they are designed with care.  We highlight important considerations when designing norm-nudges and discuss a general model of social behavior based on expectations and conditional preferences. We present the results of several experiments where norm-nudging can backfire, and ways to avoid these negative outcomes.