Expanding the choice set : Supercharging active

Recent work has suggested that yes/no response formats, or active choice, can increase enrollment compared to opt-in procedures. To encourage even greater enrollment and increased participant engagement in academic research studies, we investigated the impact on participation rates of presenting multiple “yes” or “no” options. We demonstrate that the provision of additional, more labor-intensive “yes” and “no” options to the original active choice not only increases respondents’ level of involvement, but also reduces the proportion of respondents who decide not to become involved at all. Furthermore, we show that adding response options affects people’s forecasts that others would enroll, perhaps explaining the impact of expanded choice on respondent decisions. Additional response options never had a negative impact on enrollment frequency or engagement; in contrast, increasing the number of “no” options actually increased participant engagement in one study. We conclude that expanding the choice set could be used as a simple tool to enhance participant engagement with little risk of reducing enrollment frequency. Abstract Word Count: 162Word Count: 162