You can "nudge" someone into buying your product, but those tricks fail completely at getting them to actually use it.
SSRN · March 18, 2026 · 6350431
The Takeaway
While common policy tools like 'default options' are highly effective at making people accept a new health product, this study shows they do nothing to solve the social stigma or learning curves associated with actually using the product. This creates a massive 'adoption-usage gap' where people end up owning technologies they are still too socially embarrassed or uncomfortable to use.
From the abstract
Many welfare-improving technologies in low- and middle-income countries exhibit low take-up even when prices and access barriers are minimal. This paper studies this phenomenon in the context of menstrual health in Botswana, a domain characterized by stigma and where reusable menstrual health technologies were virtually unknown. We conduct a randomized survey experiment that independently randomizes persuasive information and default provision of a menstrual cup in a 2×2 design. Defaults substan