Testing the Effect of the Cookie Banners on Behaviour

Rene van Bavel and Nuria Rodriguez-Priego

No JRC103997, JRC Research Reports from Joint Research Centre

Abstract: We conducted a laboratory experiment (n=602) to test the effect on behaviour of six different cookie banner messages. These messages were based on four behavioural insights: defaults, information deficit model, protection motivation theory (PMT) and social norms. A control condition presented the traditional cookie banner message as recommended by the European Commission (EC). The behavioural measures were (a) the decision to accept cookies, (b) the decision to learn more about a website's cookie policy and (c) the time spent reading cookie policy pages. The main results are that a default banner, which told participants that continuing to browse implied cookie acceptance, led to higher cookie acceptance rates. With regard to users' decision to learn more about cookies, a message which combined all elements from PMT made people less likely to click on the link for more information.

Keywords: cookies; privacy; online behaviour; behavioural economics; nudging; experiments (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 16 pages
Date: 2016-12
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-cbe
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ipt:iptwpa:jrc103997

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