The Middle Eastern and North African (MENA) region is one of the fastest developing in the world, however, some of its countries are the slowest in implementing sustainable construction practices. One of these countries is Kuwait, which contributes one and a half times more global greenhouse gas emissions per capita than the U.S. The dissertation starts by identifying potential barriers to more sustainable design and construction practices among professionals in Kuwait. The barriers identified are not technological, but behavioral, related to perceptions of risk and awareness. Behavioral science offers potential solutions to address these barriers through a concept called choice architecture. Professionals who design and construct our built environment use decision tools such as rating systems to inform their design decision making. These tools are inherently embedded with choice architecture. More intentional choice architecture among rating systems that align individual preferences and beliefs may increase the pursuit of more environmentally sustainable design solutions. One form of choice architecture is called goal framing, which describes the outcome of a choice as either a positive consequence of engaging in a behavior or a negative consequence of not engaging in a behavior. Goal framing was applied to the Envision rating system for sustainable infrastructure to emphasize how long-term sustainable outcomes align with decision makers immediate project needs, preferences, and values. Engineering professionals from the U.S. and Kuwait were randomly assigned either the original version of Envision or the goal framed version. The results indicate that goal framing the credits about people and finances, not just the impact on the environment, increased participants motivation and encouraged them to set higher goals for sustainable performance, specifically among professionals who hold a pro-social paradigm of the world. These findings have relevance to those who design, use, and mandate the use of rating systems during the design and construction process of buildings and infrastructure. Future research should continue to explore how engineering professionals make decisions and what choice architecture modifications can support design and engineering towards more sustainable outcomes. / Doctor of Philosophy / The Middle Eastern and North African (MENA) region is one of the fastest developing in the world, however, some of its countries are the slowest in implementing sustainable construction practices. One of these countries is Kuwait, which contributes one and a half times more global greenhouse gas emissions per capita than the U.S. The dissertation starts by identifying potential barriers to more sustainable design and construction practices among professionals in Kuwait. The barriers identified are not technological, but behavioral, related to perceptions of risk and awareness. Behavioral science offers potential solutions to address these barriers through a concept called choice architecture. Professionals who design and construct our built environment use decision tools such as rating systems to inform their design decision making. These tools are inherently embedded with choice architecture. More intentional choice architecture among rating systems that align individual preferences and beliefs may increase the pursuit of more environmentally sustainable design solutions. One form of choice architecture is called goal framing, which describes the outcome of a choice as either a positive consequence of engaging in a behavior or a negative consequence of not engaging in a behavior. Goal framing was applied to the Envision rating system for sustainable infrastructure to emphasize how long-term sustainable outcomes align with decision makers immediate project needs, preferences, and values. Engineering professionals from the U.S. and Kuwait were randomly assigned either the original version of Envision or the goal framed version. The results indicate that goal framing the credits about people and finances, not just the impact on the environment, increased participants motivation and encouraged them to set higher goals for sustainable performance, specifically among professionals who hold a pro-social paradigm of the world. These findings have relevance to those who design, use, and mandate the use of rating systems during the design and construction process of buildings and infrastructure.

Government agencies have attempted to reduce energy consumption using executive orders, mandates, and agency policies. Despite these efforts, overall energy consumption of government facilities has not experienced significant energy reductions. Why haven't these efforts succeeded? The premise is that energy consumption decisions and their unintended outcomes contribute to this problem, and in this manuscript research focuses on cognitive bias, choice architecture, and decision making in relation to energy decisions answer this question. Potential impacts cognitive bias has on the decision maker is examined, and if it is possible to design better decision environments to account for cognitive bias and help decision makers maximize benefits (utility). This manuscript first examines the literature of cognitive bias, choice architecture, and government energy management, especially how these topics relate to meeting the country's energy goals. The next chapter examines cognitive bias that government facility managers encounter using qualitative analysis. In this study, the research indicates facility managers encounter loss aversion, risk aversion, choice overload, and the status quo bias during energy decisions. The last chapter examines applications of choice architecture, specifically attribute framing, to emphasize the utility maximizing choice of long term energy reductions over initial cost. This study found that decision makers did not see the utility of the energy efficient option without an intervention to draw their attention to the long term savings. Once the decision makers became aware of the potential savings, they chose the most efficient (and utility maximizing) option. / Master of Science / Government agencies have attempted to reduce energy consumption using executive orders, mandates, and agency policies. Despite these efforts, overall energy consumption of government facilities has not experienced significant energy reductions. Why haven’t these efforts succeeded? The premise is that energy consumption decisions made by facility managers, and their unintended outcomes, contribute to this underestimating of energy savings. This manuscript research focuses on how decisions can vastly effect energy efficiency, and how the structure of decisions can assist facility managers to make decisions which result in energy efficiency. This manuscript first examines the literature decision making in government energy management. The next chapter examines cognitive bias, which inhibits decisions that maximize benefits, that government facility managers encounter using interviews and survey results. In this study, the research indicates facility managers would rather avoid a loss of revenue than risk a potential gain in revenue, and are overwhelmed by the options of energy efficiency products and services available. The last chapter examines how to make the decisions easier for facility managers, by drawing attention to the benefits of long-term energy efficient products and services over initial (high) costs of products and services. This study found that decision makers did not see the benefit of the energy efficient products and services without an intervention to draw their attention to the long-term savings. Once the decision makers became aware of the potential savings, they chose the most efficient option.

The publication and mass appeal of Richard Thaler and Cass Sunstein's book Nudge: Improving Decisions about Health, Wealth and Happiness (Nudge), in 2008, illuminated behavioural economics, in the public and political domain. Nudging, a technique derived from behavioural economics, offers a fresh element to the long-time debate between paternalism and freedom, since proponents believe it can simultaneously preserve freedom of choice and serve as a means to influence behaviour. Unsurprisingly, in the decade or so since Nudge, private corporations and governments alike have shown great interest in the behavioural steering techniques derived from behavioural economics. This thesis explores the ethical implications and the various means by which governments and the private sector influence behaviour, specifically individual decision making. Since many of the methods overlap in purpose and practice, I make distinct three techniques: nudging, boosting and market advertising. These steering techniques range from transparent and educative to sub-conscious and manipulative methods; as such ethical justification for their employment varies. This thesis concludes by stating transparency as a condition for ethical behavioural influencing since non-transparent or covert methods do not uphold true freedom of choice, Furthermore, the implementation of non-transparent influences carries the potential for further violations of individual autonomy.

We asked whether the design of a Science Data Repository (SDR) can influence data sharing behaviour in small scientific collaborations. We hypothesised that an SDR can influence data-sharing behaviour when its design considers the context of data-sharing. We proposed an alternative approach to those documented in the literature, employing a combination of socio-technical empirical and analytical methods for context capturing, and choice architecture for context incorporation. To evaluate the approach we applied it to design features in a Scientific Data Repository for a population of small scientific collaborations within the Life Sciences. The application of this thesis' approach consisted of an exploratory case study, a review of factors associated with data sharing, the definition of design claims, and implementation of a set of design features. We collected data using interviews with members of the collaborations and designers of the SDR; as well as obtaining the data-logs from the collaborations' SDR. We evaluated the resulting design features using an asynchronous web experiment. We found that using the empirical approach to context capturing we are able to effectively identify factors associated with data sharing in the small scientific collaborations. Moreover, we identified a number of limitations on the application of the analytical approach to context capturing. Furthermore, we found that the Choice Architecture based procedure for context incorporation can define effective design features in Science Data Repositories. In this work, we show that we can facilitate data-sharing by incorporating context into the design of a Science Data Repository, and identified a set of restrictions to use our approach. The approach proposed in this thesis can be used by practitioners wishing to improve data sharing in an SDR. Contributions, such as the survey of factors associated with data sharing behaviour, can be used by researchers to understand the problems associated with data sharing in small scientific collaborations.

This thesis attempts to answer the research question: What are the causal mechanisms for behaviour change undergirding choice architecture (CA) interventions in alcohol use? This thesis is organised along two dimensions: conceptual and empirical. At the conceptual level, this project discusses the application of CA to public policy; the lack of consensus regarding the theory of change underpinning the relationship between CA intervention stimuli and modified behaviour; and the need for clearer understandings of the CA intervention components in relation to other behavioural interventions. At the empirical level, this project systematically reviews available CA interventions intended to reduce alcohol consumption in public drink settings and suggests new alcohol-related CA intervention strategies.

Chronic diseases, including obesity are a global epidemic with significant long term mental and physical health complications, as well as societal costs from loss of productivity and health care expenditures. The causes of chronic disease and obesity are multifaceted and are linked to the complexity of eating behaviour, which develops over many years and is a product of our food environment as well as our social influences. First-year undergraduate students living in residence and on meal plans have lower vegetable intake than is recommended for optimal health and disease and obesity prevention. They also gain on average 2-3 kg in their first year due to factors like stress, increased autonomy in food choices and the food environment they face. With more than 2 million Canadian young adults attending post-secondary institutions and the importance of diet to overall health and wellness, building healthy eating habits and preventing weight gain during this life transition is an important public health priority. Nudges or choice architecture interventions aim to encourage public health goals without removing choice for participants. Nudging seems to have a stronger effect in deterring the choice of unhealthy foods over motivating the choice of healthy foods. Conversely, pricing strategies where healthy foods are subsidized appear effective. Many intervention studies have been conducted in cafeterias with young adults but there was a need for studies that compared the impact of nudge interventions against economic strategies on the purchase of vegetables. This study occurred in the main cafeteria serving undergraduate students on meal plans at the University of Victoria (n=1700). A longitudinal, quasi-experimental, single case ABACA research design was conducted and salad bar sales data was tracked. After a baseline period (A), an economic incentive was provided in the form of a loyalty card (B), this was then withdrawn for a second baseline period (A), followed by a cognitive and affect nudge implemented in the form of tent cards and sandwich boards with reasons to eat more vegetables conveyed with eye-catching, colourful graphics and messaging (C) and finally a third baseline measure (A) after withdrawal of the cognitive nudge. The results showed that small economic incentives and nudges were not enough to have an impact on salad bar sales and that they declined throughout the term with too much overlapping data to establish an intervention effect. Larger economic incentives, behaviour or placement nudges and a focus on deterring unhealthy foods may have had an effect but these intervention options were not deemed feasible by food service management in this context. It may also be that there need to be more extensive changes to an individual’s microsystem and that these need to be supported by other changes in the microsystem and further changes at the level of the meso, macrosystem or exosystem through university-level intervention in food service operations or government policy or regulation. / Graduate / 2021-12-10

In the debate on how to present and prevent climate change, the opinions have been conflicted. Some argue that a pessimistic projection will trigger a doomsday-effect and others argue that an optimistic projection enhances the risk of remaining passive. However, there is a fine line between what is too optimistic and too pessimistic. With the basis from choice architecture and the Zero Contribution Thesis, this study has dealt with how, and if, different projections could influence people's attitudes through nudges. By conducting two surveys which project different outcomes of climate change, one pessimistic, and one optimistic, this study aims at contributing to a greater understanding of how the use of communication can influence peoples’ attitudes and commitment towards climate change. When being a choice architect and constructing a nudge, it is crucial to carefully consider the design of the nudge since it is vital to understand that small details have a significant effect on the choices a person makes. By making small changes in our everyday life, we can reduce the impact of our ecological footprint. With the results it can be concluded that a purely pessimistic or optimistic projection may not be the most effective method when trying to influence environmentally friendly behaviour. Therefore, it could be beneficial to use a combination of both an optimistic- and pessimistic- projection of climate change. Furthermore, nudges could be considered as a legitimate policy tool when trying to create environmentally friendly behaviour.

Digital wellbeing is a response to the current societal challenges of technology overuse and smartphone addiction. There is limited knowledge about designing for digital wellbeing, despite digital wellbeing tools becoming increasingly popular. This study looks beyond features and directs the research towards information architecture. This study examines choice architectures within contemporary digital wellbeing applications to better understand their design and structure. Specifically, it investigates how design influences decision-making processes and self-regulatory systems. Empirical data was gathered from six digital wellbeing applications and analysed abductively by adopting a qualitative content analysis approach. Despite all the applications having a high user rating, they are not designed to facilitate self-regulation. Instead of providing helpful tools to mitigate problematic smartphone use, the applications use strategies that emphasise overriding set time limits. Furthermore, digital wellbeing design principles can be considered ambiguous and lack sufficient understanding of information architecture and psychology. The results led to discussions about the motives behind digital wellbeing, contextual awareness, and how digital wellbeing challenges current views of ethics and design strategies.

Since 2018, privacy notices are required by websites to inform users of their use of cookies where the users can choose whether or not they want to accept the cookies. While the use of privacy notices theoretically provides the ability for users to be in charge of their own privacy online, there are issues regarding privacy notices that lead to that they hardly ever work in practice. The reasons for this are many but center around that privacy notices are designed to manipulate users to accept cookies rather than to inform and encourage users to make deliberate choices. In light of this, the purpose of this study is to evaluate whether or not the two principles from choice architecture, defaults and mappings, are an appropriate approach to improve users' understanding and affect their decision-making process regarding privacy notices. The study used a combination of qualitative methods and contained a screening survey, prototype testing and interviews. The screening survey was used to select appropriate participants who later conducted the prototype testing and interviews. Four prototypes displaying four different privacy notices were designed and presented to the participants. Each participant was randomly assigned one of the prototypes and later asked questions regarding their interaction with and understanding of the privacy notice. The data collected was analyzed using a thematic analysis. The results derived from the analysis revealed that a majority of the participants did not read the privacy notice. Further, the factors that influenced participants’ interactions with the privacy notice were mainly habitual rather than affected by the specific prototype they were presented with. Based on the results, it can be concluded that defaults may impact the user’s decision due to visual cues. However, neither defaults nor mappings worked as an encouragement for the user to make a well-informed and deliberate choice.

Formal argumentation aims to provide a structured framework for cognitively compatible automated reasoning in the context of artificial intelligence; however, due to its roots in mathematical logic, formal argumentation research is typically focused on formal, ‘object-level’ aspects. It has yet to be studied how environmental, ‘meta-level’ structures, can affect human intuitions regarding the formalized model. To bridge this gap, we examined whether bold text used in visualization of argumentation frameworks, the core structures of formal argumentation,affects human assessment of the acceptability of the arguments and the confidence in the assessment. 48 participants divided into four condition groups evaluated the acceptability of four sets of arguments with simple and simplified floating reinstatement. We put different arguments(or none) into bold print to nudge a decision (and to form a control group, respectively). The results show limited evidence in favor of bold text having an increasing effect on the acceptability of the topic argument but no significant changes in the confidence in the answer. A replication study with a larger sample size is warranted to increase confidence in the results.