Student assistant Lena Hortsch develops nudging concept Choice O-Matic

According to the WHO, around two thirds of all smoked cigarettes end up on the ground. These not only disrupt the aesthetic appearance of our surroundings, but also pose a significant problem for our environment. Despite a large number of public ashtrays, fines for improperly disposed cigarettes and various awareness campaigns and initiatives, the number of cigarettes on the ground has not yet been sufficiently reduced.

Although most smokers are also aware that improperly disposed cigarettes are an environmental hazard, convenience often wins out. Consequently, there is no need for more ashtrays; instead, incentives must be created to use them.

The Choice O-Matic is inspired by the idea, originally from the UK, of influencing the disposal behavior of smokers through humorous either/or questions and corresponding voting options. The concept makes use of the behavioral economics approach of nudging. Nudging aims to guide people towards a better decision (for them) without forbidding them to do something or using economic incentives. The Choice O-Matic optimizes this concept by converting existing ashtrays to save resources. The aim is therefore to design a customized Choice O-Matic for every location in and around Kassel, which is adapted precisely to the respective requirements.

The Choice O-Matic already won first place in an internal project funding competition in 2021 and was exhibited at the TEDx conference in Kassel in the same year. The project is supported by Infinity Deutschland e.V., a student initiative that has set itself the task of solving global problems regionally.

Student Lena Hortsch, who developed the Choice O-Matic, has a bachelor's degree in economics from the University of Kassel. She has been working as a student assistant at the ITeG since 2019 and learned about nudging here. She was able to work on the Nudger project from the very beginning, which deals with privacy nudges in the digital work context.

At the beginning of 2021, she started working on her own nudging concept - the Choice O-Matic - as part of her voluntary work at Infinity Kassel e.V. In the same year, she won first place in a project funding competition and was thus able to continue researching the idea. In fall 2021, the first prototype of the Choice O-Matic was exhibited at the TEDx conference in Kassel. Ms Hortsch is currently studying for a Master's degree in Sustainable Management in Kassel and is working on optimizing the prototype. In her master's thesis, she wants to write about nudging for more environmentally friendly behavior and test the Choice O-Matic in her own field experiment.