The increasing use of open-ended questions in marketing research, particularly for collecting opinions on advertising videos, has raised concerns about insufficient effort responses (IERs), such as meaningless character strings. This study examines the effectiveness of three behavioral economics interventions (nudges) in mitigating IERs through a randomized controlled trial (n=10,324) conducted in an online survey. The interventions include (1) commitment, (2) a loss-framed message, and (3) a gain-framed message. All three interventions reduced both the proportion of respondents providing IERs and the total number of IERs. The loss-framed and gain-framed messages further decreased the selection of intermediate responses, which are commonly associated with low-effort answering. Importantly, no adverse effects, such as increased survey dropout rates or heightened response burden, were observed. On the contrary, the gain-framed message led to a reduction in both dropout rates and perceived response burden. These findings suggest that behavioral economics interventions can enhance data quality in online surveys by reducing inefficiencies caused by IERs in responses to open-ended questions.

The UNIV Co-op operates a meal plan to address the issue of meal skipping among university students. However, the relationship between meal plan enrollment and meal skipping remains insufficiently explored. This study examines the effect of meal plan enrollment on meal skipping among university students. Utilizing data from the 58th Survey of Student Life, the university information platform “Manabijon,” and the 2020 National Census, we estimate the effect of the meal plan on students’ dietary intake. To mitigate selection bias arising from the voluntary nature of meal plan enrollment, we employ the instrumental variable method. The estimation results indicate that meal plan participation exerts a significant positive effect on the likelihood of consuming three or more meals per day, thereby reducing meal skipping. Furthermore, we identify specific time periods during which the number of students consuming meals significantly increases and others during which it significantly decreases due to meal plan participation. This finding suggests that, within the operational framework of Co-op cafeteria hours, the meal plan may play a role in fostering healthier and more structured eating habits.

The number of reported syphilis cases has surged since the mid-2010s, underscoring the importance of early detection and treatment through testing. This study examines whether nudging messages can increase individuals’ willingness to undergo syphilis testing. We conducted a randomized controlled trial via an online survey to evaluate the effects of five behaviorally informed messages on screening intentions. Our findings indicate that messages framing syphilis-related health risks as a potential loss for oneself or one’s partner—such as “Your actions could lead to the infection of someone you care about”—significantly increased testing intentions. Further heterogeneity analysis revealed that this altruism-driven message was effective across various demographic groups, regardless of gender, age, prior knowledge of syphilis, educational background, or relationship status.

This paper empirically analyzes the factors and outcomes related to the choice of extracurricular activities in elementary school. Specifically, we analyzed the experience of physical and musical activities by gender. A father’s education level has particularly influence on his child’s participation in physical and musical activities. The choice of physical activity is related to social capital such as strength of friendship and participation in local events, and the choice of musical activity is related to cultural capital, which includes lifestyle and experiences such as going to concerts with family and reading books. In terms of academic performance, non-cognitive ability, educational background, and wages, the group who chose either physical or musical activity was more successful than the group who neither did physical nor musical activity. In addition, physical activity and musical activity were associated with different outcomes depending on gender and achievement measures. For example, wages were higher in the group who chose physical activity for both men and women, but the academic performance in elementary school was better in the group who chose musical activity for both men and women. Regarding non-cognitive abilities, the result suggests that women who chose physical activity had a higher extroversion and preference for competition than those who chose musical activity, both of which may be linked to effects on current wages. We also confirmed that those who chose both physical activity and musical activity had a higher workload, which may result in lower achievement scores than that of those who chose only one of the two activities.