Sound (for) nudging sustainable behavior and engagement in financial markets

Important results from the project

How can we help consumers make sustainable financial decisions? This interdisciplinary project with participants from psychology, behavioral economics, cognitive science, technology development and financial actors investigated whether sound can be used as a channel to support (nudge) sustainable financial decisions. The knowledge and tools developed in this project increase knowledge about how sustainable financial decisions can be supported and create attractive experiences for bank customers.

Expected long term effects

The tools and results that emerged from the project are good examples "cases" of how sound (which is typically an underestimated information channel) can be used to make it easy for consumers to do the right thing. There is a potential to scale this in the banking domain and other consumer domains both physically and digitally. In the long term, there is a potential that using technology for sustainable decisions can have significant accumulated positive effects on both individuals and society.

Approach and implementation

To develop novel knowledge on sound nudges for financial markets the project group jointly used an interactive approach where we conducted comprehensive reviews, developed a joint design framework, and defined primary psychological barriers to sustainable choice in financial markets and target behavior for behavioral interventions. This succesful process relied on equal input from academic and industrial partners to achieve scientifically valid results that at the same time could be applied.