Effects of Nudging and Transparency on Attitudes toward Fertility Policy: Based on a Survey Experiment of a Childless Group

As fertility rates continue to decline, various policies aimed at encouraging childbearing among individuals of reproductive age have been implemented. However, public attitudes toward these policies have received little attention. Understanding public sentiment is crucial for ensuring the appropriate implementation and effectiveness of these measures. This study focuses on individuals of reproductive age who have not yet had children, investigating their attitudes toward different fertility-nudging policies in the context of increasing attention to such interventions. It also aims to reveal the potential impact of transparency on policy perceptions, providing empirical evidence for the development of more effective and nuanced fertility policies.

The study employed a survey experiment involving participants of reproductive age who had not yet had children. Participants were randomly assigned to different experimental groups and presented with descriptions of information on either nudging “emphasizing health benefits” or nudging “guiding positive emotions” to encourage fertility. The study also manipulated the transparency of the nudging interventions, creating both transparent and non-transparent conditions to examine the moderating effects of transparency. During the experiment, participants were asked to evaluate their attitudes toward different nudging measures from both personal and societal perspectives and to provide self-assessments of the relevant measurement indicators.

The findings reveal that when considering the impact of policies on themselves, participants held more positive attitudes toward “emphasizing health benefits” nudging compared to “guiding positive emotions” nudging. Maintaining transparency in “emphasizing health benefits” nudging can reduce the perceived ethical risks, but this effect is not significant for “guiding positive emotions” nudging. When considering the impact of policies on society, participants showed no significant difference in their attitudes toward the two types of nudging strategies. However, maintaining transparency improved the participants' attitudes toward “guiding positive emotions” nudging but it had no effect on “emphasizing health benefits” nudging.

The results highlight the multilayered and diverse nature of public attitudes toward fertility-nudging strategies, suggesting that these attitudes cannot be easily summarized or predicted. This implies that “emphasizing health benefits” nudging may be more appropriate when designing fertility-nudging strategies, and policymakers should maintain transparency in their nudging intentions to alleviate fertility fears and ethical concerns in current public opinion. The discrepancies in attitudes between personal and societal perspectives underscore the importance of considering the interests of the various stakeholders, and when designing policies it is important to strike a balance between individual interests and societal benefits.