People underuse opt-out options, and explicit presentation substantially increases their use¶

Claim · All claims
Evidence · 1 study · review r2 · q2
Currency · newest study 2024 · not yet checked against its sources · not reviewed by a person

Subclaims¶

q2 i? Opting out is barely used when not explicitly offered; explicitly presenting the option raises use rates but they remain relatively low. → Yael Sidi · Rakefet Ackerman 2024

Evidence¶

Yael Sidi · Rakefet Ackerman 2024¶

Yael Sidi · Rakefet Ackerman. (2024). Opting Out as an Untapped Resource in Instructional Design: Review and Implications. Educational Psychology Review. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10648-024-09879-w

q2 · i? · review · r2

The review reports, citing Weber and Perfect (2012), an eyewitness study of mock crime video reports comparing spontaneous open-ended reporting with an explicit "don't know" option: "only 2.2% of the participants in the spontaneous condition opted out, compared to 19.3%" with the explicit option.

"They found that only 2.2% of the participants in the spontaneous condition opted out, compared to 19.3% who opted out when this option was explicitly presented."

Discussion¶

Related Claims¶

• Opting out of tasks can indicate effective effort regulation, not merely low motivation (Sidi & Ackerman, 2024 review) — related
• The opt-out and curiosity–accuracy findings replicate in a larger UK sample (Experiment 3A) — related
• Opting out has disadvantages: it can obscure implicit knowledge, enable excessive opting out, and complicate assessment — related
• Allowing opt-out options improves output-bound accuracy in adults, primary-school children, and preschoolers — related
• Changing the audio default from opt-in to opt-out raised audio availability from 72% to 99% of assignments and student audio use from 68% to 84% — related
• Adults opt out of answering more on trials they later answer incorrectly, and curiosity is higher on opted-out trials (metacognitive control) — related