When Reminders Backfire: Why Nudging Parents to Read with Their Kids Isn’t So Simple
Most parents want to read more with their children as a way to improve their literacy while bonding with them. Yet bedtime books go unopened, routines slip, and good intentions quietly dissolve into the chaos of everyday life.
It’s the classic kind of gap behavioral science loves to close; when people want to do something beneficial but don’t follow through, a gentle nudge should help. Well, it turns out the solution is not as simple as it seems.
In “Nudging Parental Engagement: Do Reminders Improve Shared Book Reading?”, Simon Calmer Andersen and Jesper Asring Hansen investigate whether simple text message reminders can increase how often parents read with their children. The findings reveal a more nuanced relationship between reminders and action, challenging the intuitive idea that a simple prompt is enough to turn good intentions into behavior.
About the Author
Samantha Lau
Samantha graduated from the University of Toronto, majoring in psychology and criminology. During her undergraduate degree, she studied how mindfulness meditation impacted human memory which sparked her interest in cognition. Samantha is curious about the way behavioural science impacts design, particularly in the UX field. As she works to make behavioural science more accessible with The Decision Lab, she is preparing to start her Master of Behavioural and Decision Sciences degree at the University of Pennsylvania. In her free time, you can catch her at a concert or in a dance studio.
