Abstract

Digital nudging has become an important research topic for information systems researchers to explore. In general, digital nudging is seen as a positive form of engagement while few study the impact of digital nudging in a critical manner. This paper examines people’s responses to dignity affronts of digital nudging. Dignity affronts outline an offense to one’s dignity or self-respect. In this paper, we rely on CARE theory, which posits that people tend to respond negatively to dignity affronts, to analyze 42 semi-structured interviews with participants in a three-month data collection that involved a mobile application with daily digital nudges. Our findings reveal various affront responses to digital nudges in the form of forfeit, flight, and fight responses. Importantly, our paper shows that a digital nudge can become a dark pattern under certain circumstances, even if it is responsibly designed. This paper provides an in-depth analysis and offers a three-fold contribution: i) a theoretical contribution through the conceptualization of digital nudging, ii) nuanced empirical insights into when digital nudging can be helpful versus harmful, and iii) practical implications through design guidelines to mitigate potential dignity affronts.

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