Testing Object-Oriented Nudges for Regulatory Compliance in Environmental Land

Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs · awarded 13 February 2025

Who

Buyer	Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs London
Supplier	Verian Group UK Ltd
Category	services
Classification	Social research services CPV 79315000
Notice published	28 March 2025

What it is for

This experiment is part of our Choice Architecture Test (CAT) series. We have already conducted two tests, CAT 1 and CAT 2, with a third (CAT 3) and fourth (CAT 4) in progress. This will be our fifth test (CAT 5). • CAT 1: tested the effect of defaults on a hypothetical Sustainable Farming Incentive (SFI) application. Results showed a statistically significant increase in the environmental quality of the agreement generated through defaults compared to the current SFI application design. • CAT 2: tested the effect of defaults and guided selection on a hypothetical Countryside Stewardship (CS) mid-tier application. Results for CAT 2 also showed defaults being effective. Compared to the current CS mid-tier design & some aspects of guided selection tested during the experiment, defaults led to more spatially targeted actions being chosen (the primary outcome of the experiment) by farmers, that might indicate higher quality environmental agreements . • CAT 3: will test the effect of geospatial functionality (i.e. presenting guidance on spatial priorities visually) & offering a default totaliser (that shows the potential financial reward for choosing options) on a hypothetical SFI application. Similar to CAT 1, statistical analysis will be conducted to gauge whether results show an improvement in the environmental quality of the agreement compared to the current SFI application design. • CAT 4: will test the effect of offering defaults with farmers who find it difficult to access and use digital tools and services, (i.e. those with low 'digital literacy'), to assess whether findings from CAT 1 & CAT 2 are consistent for these farmers, as well as their more digitally adept counterparts.

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