We explore the role of defaults and choice architecture on student loan decision-making, experimentally testing the impact pre-populating either decline or accept decisions compared to an active choice, no pre-population, decision. We demonstrate that the default choice presented does influence student loan borrowing decisions. Specifically, compared to active choice, students presented within a pre-populated decline decision (opt-in) were almost five percent less likely to accept all packaged loans and borrowed between 4.6% and 4.8% less in federal student loans. The reductions in borrowing appears to be concentrated within unsubsidized loans with those assigned to the opt-in condition borrowing 8.3% less in unsubsidized student loans. These changes in borrowing did not induce substitution towards private or Parent PLUS loans nor did they negatively impact enrollment, academic performance, or on-campus work outcomes in the same academic year.

我们探索了违约和选择架构在学生贷款决策中的作用，通过实验测试了预填充拒绝或接受决策与主动选择、无预填充决策相比的影响。我们证明了所呈现的默认选择确实会影响学生贷款的借贷决策。具体而言，与主动选择相比，在预先填写的拒绝决定（选择加入）中提出的学生接受所有打包贷款的可能性几乎降低了 5%，并且在联邦学生贷款中借入的可能性减少了 4.6% 至 4.8%。借款的减少似乎集中在无补贴贷款中，那些被分配到选择加入条件的贷款减少了 8.3% 的无补贴学生贷款。