The aim of this study was to explore to what extent consumers are aware of the negative forms of digital nudging in e-commerce contexts and to explore consumers’ opinions regarding the ethical dilemmas that this kind of design may cause. This aim resulted in two research questions. The first research question aimed to find out how consumers view nudging as a phenomenon in the context of e-commerce. The other research question aimed to find out what possible risks the participants see for their own and other consumers self-determination associated to nudging techniques on e-commerce websites. The theoretical framework in this study consisted of theories about organized immaturity and autonomy. To answer the research questions semi-structured interviews were conducted with six participants. The semi-structured interviews consisted of three parts, one part for background, one part for RQ1 and one part for RQ2. The interviews were later analysed using thematic analysis. The result of this study shows that the participants both see negatively and positively on nudging in an e-commerce context. They do not like when nudging is aggressive, but when it is not aggressive, they believe it can be helpful. The ethical dilemmas that the participants associate with nudging is that it can be manipulative and exploit the weakest in the society. In conclusion it is stated that the participants are more worried about others than themselves. Future research could compare nudging on different e-commerce platforms to observe how participants are affected by nudging.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:UPSALLA1/oai:DiVA.org:hb-32123 |
| Date | January 2024 |
| Creators | Larsin, Mimmi, Pihlaja, Marcus |
| Publisher | Högskolan i Borås, Akademin för bibliotek, information, pedagogik och IT |
| Source Sets | DiVA Archive at Upsalla University |
| Language | Swedish |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Student thesis, info:eu-repo/semantics/bachelorThesis, text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Rights | info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess |
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