Social nudges in policymaking: information selection by civil servants under differing levels of complexity

Abstract Diverse information is key for informed and effective policymaking when addressing complex policy issues. Policymakers need to decide what information to process given their limited time and cognitive capacity. This paper presents an online vignette experiment in which 157 civil servants from a Dutch medium-sized municipality participated. We test how civil servants respond to the presence of a social nudge that stimulates more diverse information selection under conditions of low and high complexity. The results show that the effect of a social nudge on information selection is larger in a context characterized by high complexity than by low complexity. This study contributes to understanding how civil servants select information. Moreover, it shows how social nudges can improve the information selection process and provides actionable advice to governmental organizations seeking to improve the information selection process.