金融与财务学系列讲座之331期

Time：14:00-15:30, Tuesday, March 31, 2026

Location: Room 503, Starr Building（史带楼503室）

Topic: Demand for Reducing Algorithmic Personalization: Evidence from a Field Experiment on Douyin (TikTok China)

Speaker: Juanjuan Meng (孟涓涓)

Peking University

Abstract: We exploit a regulatory feature in Douyin (TikTok China) that allows users to disable per-sonalized recommendation algorithms to study users’ demand for reducing personalization. In a field experiment, take-up of this long-available opt-out feature was negligible before our intervention. Informing users about the existence of this function leads 33% to disable per-sonalization. Providing additional research-based information that disabling personalization increases information diversity (Levy, 2021) or reduces digital addiction (Gao et al., 2025) raises the disabling rate to 49% and 47%, respectively, significantly above the awareness-only group, and is accompanied by reductions in Douyin usage. After three months, about 10% of treated users continue to keep personalization turned off. Our results demonstrate clear demand for lower personalization and highlight the importance of providing opt-out options,raising awareness, and educating users about how algorithms shape digital consumption for effective digital governance.

Bio: Juanjuan Meng is a Professor in the Department of Applied Economics at Guanghua School of Management, Peking University, and the Director of the Research Center for Behavioral Science and Policy Intervention at Peking University. She currently serves as an Associate Editor for Management Science and Executive Committee member of the Economic Science Association （ESA). Dr. Meng's current research interests include Behavior Economics, with recent focus on behavioral intervention and behavioral issues in digital economy. Her research has been published in American Economic Review, Management Science, Review of Financial Studies, Economic Journal, Review of Economics and Statistics, Journal of Public Economics, International Economic Review, Journal of Development Economics, Games and Economic Behavior, Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization. Juanjuan Meng has received financial support from the National Natural Science Foundation of China for Major Program, National Science Fund for Distinguished Young Scholars as well as Excellent Young Scholars.