The Lacuna Project

lacuna (n.) a gap in a record where something should be

Independent research. Not affiliated with any government, agency, or company.

Exhibit 736

Dark defaults: How choice architecture steers political campaign donations

Exhibit 736 ยท Peer-reviewed study

Dark defaults: How choice architecture steers political campaign donations

We estimate that defaults increased campaign donations by over $43 million while increasing requested refunds by almost $3 million.

Staggered difference-in-differences on 14.8 million donations by 2.6 million donors using WinRed FEC data; eight campaign websites, all Republican, adopted weekly pre-checked recurring boxes in 2020.

Source
Posner, Simonov, Mrkva, Johnson (PNAS 120)
Date
2023
Quoted from
Abstract
Grade
Peer-reviewed
Document
https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2218385120
Accessed
2026-11-09
Cited by
Findings citing this exhibit

Cited by

Finding POL-3.14
Peer-reviewed A study of WinRed data on 14.8 million donations from 2.6 million donors estimated that weekly pre-checked recurring boxes, adopted by eight Republican campaign websites in 2020, increased donations by over $43 million and requested refunds by almost $3 million.