A Nudge Isn’t Always Enough

The brief’s key findings are:

• Defaults, such as 401(k) auto-enrollment, have encouraged people to adopt behaviors that align with their intentions.

• Researchers have begun to explore what happens when the default may not align with intentions.

• A new experiment tested whether defaults could encourage low-income tax filers to invest about 10 percent of their refunds in U.S. Savings Bonds.

• The default did not work: only 9 percent of the experimental group purchased bonds, no different than the control group.

• The evidence suggests a likely explanation: participants had plans to spend their refunds.