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The darker side of nudging

Join CIM for another great webinar in the Webinar Express Series on Thursday 11 February 2021.

The darker side of nudging - when the ends don't justify the means...

Charity and social marketers, behaviour change practitioners and social policy campaigners do good, well that’s their aim. Supported by clear objectives, detailed policies, defined behavioural outcomes and ethical codes of conduct, the choice of marketing techniques should be straightforward.

But certain tactics often used in commercial environments have triggered debate, particularly when used in not-for-profit contexts. For example, greater digital automation and AI algorithms (meaning the absence of human decision-making) may cause messages to be re-targeted to vulnerable or inappropriate audiences. Or the use of ‘urgency messaging’, tapping into scarcity bias, to manipulate an action. We may consider that our messages are just sensibly framed (copywritten) or that we’ve made good use of anchoring or defaults to encourage larger donations or more sign-ups, but if these are primarily ‘reactive’ decisions rather than ‘reasoned’ decisions, are we being deceptive by exploiting certain susceptibilities? When is a choice not a choice? And is transparency a pre-requisite?

The ethical arguments can be nuanced and the ‘ends justify the means’ argument cannot be applied in all circumstances. This session will explore the following:

  • Which tactics should we be worried about
  • Which techniques might be considered unethical and which cognitive biases are they tapping into
  • Examples from the non-profit sector, calling out the sludgers
  • How to sense check your influencing strategy and which frameworks can help
  • Ways we can influence and persuade with integrity
  • Going forward – how can we support one another without judgement and in our clients and supporters’ best interests

Or as Good Ol’ King Wenceslas might have said…“Dear do-gooders, please do good goodly or the good you do won’t be too good.”

In this presentation, Gordon Seabright will share the lessons learned from a career centred on turnaround and transformation; what worked, what didn’t, and what insights are relevant to anyone guiding their organisation through a period of essential change.

Liz Barnes, Vice-Chair of the CIM Charity and Social Marketing Group, Behavioural Scientist and Marketer, will share her insights from her work in social marketing, customer experience and the third sector where she has seen behaviour change techniques applied for good and learned from the bad.

The webinar is kindly hosted by the CIM Charity and Social Marketing Group and lasts approximately 40-45 minutes inclusive of a Q&A session after the presentation.

Information on how to join, along with the link, will be sent closer to the date of the webinar so please do check your spam/junk folders the morning of the webinar in case the email has been directed there by your email provider. If you don't receive an email containing the webinar link by 11 am on Thursday 11 February please let CIM know as soon as possible.

Thursday 11th February, 2021
1:00 pm - 2:00 pm

Event website

Cost

Free

How to book

You can register for this CIM Webinar Express here.

 

Venue

Online Webinar

Organiser