Vulnerability to and acceptability of different types of sludge
Lades, Samahita, Martin, Sunstein and Baekgaard address a gap in the sludge literature, which had described the problem without establishing who bears it. Drawing on a nationally representative survey of 1,591 participants in Ireland, they report that people feel particularly vulnerable to outdated websites with broken links, unfriendly staff interactions, complex documents laden with jargon, and hard-to-navigate websites, and that these are also the types of sludge they find least acceptable. Less vulnerability is reported to long waiting times and to requirements to provide private information. Differences between public and private sector sludge were minor. The findings this publication treats as decisive concern who is affected: people with poor mental health report more vulnerability and less acceptance, and a tendency to procrastinate together with a lack of time and mental energy predicts more vulnerability. Sludge falls hardest on whoever has least capacity.
Lades, Samahita, Martin, Sunstein and Baekgaard address a gap in the sludge literature, which had described the problem without establishing who bears it. Drawing on a nationally representative survey of 1,591 participants in Ireland, they report that people feel particularly vulnerable to outdated websites with broken links, unfriendly staff interactions, complex documents laden with jargon, and hard-to-navigate websites, and that these are also the types of sludge they find least acceptable. Less vulnerability is reported to long waiting times and to requirements to provide private information. Differences between public and private sector sludge were minor. The findings this publication treats as decisive concern who is affected: people with poor mental health report more vulnerability and less acceptance, and a tendency to procrastinate together with a lack of time and mental energy predicts more vulnerability. Sludge falls hardest on whoever has least capacity.
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Behavioural Public Policy. Nationally representative survey of 1,591 participants in Ireland; most reported vulnerability to outdated websites with broken links, unfriendly staff interactions, complex jargon-laden documents and hard-to-navigate websites, which were also the least acceptable; less vulnerability reported to long waiting times and private information requirements; only minor differences between public and private sector; poor mental health, procrastination and lack of time and mental energy predicted more vulnerability. doi:10.1017/bpp.2025.10020
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https://doi.org/10.1017/bpp.2025.10020
DOI: 10.1017/bpp.2025.10020