book review of nudge

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THE FINAL EDITION

by Richard H. Thaler & Cass R. Sunstein ‧ RELEASE DATE: Aug. 3, 2021

Students of design, politics, economics, and many other fields will delight in these provocative discussions.

A fully revised version of the 2008 bestseller about making decisions.

Thaler and Sunstein advocate what they call “libertarian paternalism,” by which consumers and citizens can be “nudged” to make decisions of their own will that guide them and society toward a more perfect union. For instance, they write, “nudges”—usually matters of design in presenting the choices to be made, from whether to tip a cab driver to combatting the deleterious effects of climate change—can be coupled with other mechanisms, including taxes and even outright bans. In the case of Scandinavian countries, for instance, drunken driving is discouraged through high taxes on alcohol, nudges of various kinds to shame drink-impaired drivers from getting behind the wheel, and harsh penalties for anyone caught driving drunk. As for climate change, “we will need jackhammers and bulldozers, with pocketknives helping where they can.” In other words, every tool helps, from nudges that encourage people to lighten their carbon footprints to cap-and-trade agreements. The authors argue effectively against what they call “required choice,” preferring instead for vendors and governments to provide transparent information, such as labeling products that contain shellfish or peanuts so that those allergic to them can avoid buying them. Still, they allow, there are instances in which required choice is the best solution: One should be able to choose whether to buy one kind of canned soup over another but perhaps not to dictate the ingredients of every restaurant meal. In the spirit of Donald Norman’s The Design of Everyday Things , which they cite, Thaler and Sunstein deliver a spirited argument to enable well-informed people to overcome various biases and “probabilistic harms” to do what is best for them and, in the present case, their fellow “American Humans.”

Pub Date: Aug. 3, 2021

ISBN: 978-0-14-313700-9

Page Count: 384

Publisher: Penguin

Review Posted Online: May 17, 2021

Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2021

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BEYOND THE GENDER BINARY

From the pocket change collective series.

by Alok Vaid-Menon ‧ RELEASE DATE: June 2, 2020

A fierce, penetrating, and empowering call for change.

Artist and activist Vaid-Menon demonstrates how the normativity of the gender binary represses creativity and inflicts physical and emotional violence.

The author, whose parents emigrated from India, writes about how enforcement of the gender binary begins before birth and affects people in all stages of life, with people of color being especially vulnerable due to Western conceptions of gender as binary. Gender assignments create a narrative for how a person should behave, what they are allowed to like or wear, and how they express themself. Punishment of nonconformity leads to an inseparable link between gender and shame. Vaid-Menon challenges familiar arguments against gender nonconformity, breaking them down into four categories—dismissal, inconvenience, biology, and the slippery slope (fear of the consequences of acceptance). Headers in bold font create an accessible navigation experience from one analysis to the next. The prose maintains a conversational tone that feels as intimate and vulnerable as talking with a best friend. At the same time, the author's turns of phrase in moments of deep insight ring with precision and poetry. In one reflection, they write, “the most lethal part of the human body is not the fist; it is the eye. What people see and how people see it has everything to do with power.” While this short essay speaks honestly of pain and injustice, it concludes with encouragement and an invitation into a future that celebrates transformation.

Pub Date: June 2, 2020

ISBN: 978-0-593-09465-5

Page Count: 64

Publisher: Penguin Workshop

Review Posted Online: March 14, 2020

Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2020

TEENS & YOUNG ADULT NONFICTION | TEENS & YOUNG ADULT SOCIAL THEMES | TEENS & YOUNG ADULT BIOGRAPHY & MEMOIR | CURRENT EVENTS & SOCIAL ISSUES | BIOGRAPHY & MEMOIR

WHEN BREATH BECOMES AIR

by Paul Kalanithi ‧ RELEASE DATE: Jan. 19, 2016

A moving meditation on mortality by a gifted writer whose dual perspectives of physician and patient provide a singular...

A neurosurgeon with a passion for literature tragically finds his perfect subject after his diagnosis of terminal lung cancer.

Writing isn’t brain surgery, but it’s rare when someone adept at the latter is also so accomplished at the former. Searching for meaning and purpose in his life, Kalanithi pursued a doctorate in literature and had felt certain that he wouldn’t enter the field of medicine, in which his father and other members of his family excelled. “But I couldn’t let go of the question,” he writes, after realizing that his goals “didn’t quite fit in an English department.” “Where did biology, morality, literature and philosophy intersect?” So he decided to set aside his doctoral dissertation and belatedly prepare for medical school, which “would allow me a chance to find answers that are not in books, to find a different sort of sublime, to forge relationships with the suffering, and to keep following the question of what makes human life meaningful, even in the face of death and decay.” The author’s empathy undoubtedly made him an exceptional doctor, and the precision of his prose—as well as the moral purpose underscoring it—suggests that he could have written a good book on any subject he chose. Part of what makes this book so essential is the fact that it was written under a death sentence following the diagnosis that upended his life, just as he was preparing to end his residency and attract offers at the top of his profession. Kalanithi learned he might have 10 years to live or perhaps five. Should he return to neurosurgery (he could and did), or should he write (he also did)? Should he and his wife have a baby? They did, eight months before he died, which was less than two years after the original diagnosis. “The fact of death is unsettling,” he understates. “Yet there is no other way to live.”

Pub Date: Jan. 19, 2016

ISBN: 978-0-8129-8840-6

Page Count: 248

Publisher: Random House

Review Posted Online: Sept. 29, 2015

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2015

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Nudge: Summary, Review & Criticism

Nudge explains how policymakers can leverage psychology and social psychology to “ nudge ” people towards choices that are better for them and for society at large.

Nudge Quotes

Real-life applications.

About the Authors : “ Nudge ” is co-authored by Cass Sunstein and Richard Thaler. Thaler is a Nobel Prize winner and I loved his book “ Misbehaving “, which explains how psychology improved our understanding of economics to give birth to “Behavioral Psychology”.

#1. What’s A Nudge

The authors define a “ nudge ” as:

Any aspect of the choice architecture that alters people’s behavior in a predictable way without forbidding any option or significantly changing their economic incentives

A nudge but also be simple to avoid if an individual wants to choose differently.

Choice Architecture

Choice architecture refers to the way and order in which you present the options and opportunities.

The way you present your options will naturally nudge towards one or another direction.

#2. The Rationale for “Nudging”: Libertarian Paternalism

Sunstein and Thaler explain that we don’t make rational choices that are best for ourselves and/or for our society. As a matter of fact, we often make choices that are bad either for us, for society, or both .

They make the case that we could use our knowledge of psychology to “ nudge ” people toward the best choice but ultimately let people decide if they want to do something different.

They call this stance “libertarian paternalism”.

Libertarian paternalism is about nudging towards the best choice but allowing the individual to also reject that choice .

Libertarian paternalism promotes the best choice to increase its acceptance and to help the majority of people make the best choice. The majority of people often operate in environments in which they might not know what’s the best choice, and they are likely to want and accept the nudge (ie.: choosing the best mortgage, the best health care coverage, etc.).

Libertarian paternalism is not about overriding what people want and, if people want to willingly risk high or willingly hurt themselves, they can also be given that choice.

#3. Why We Make the Wrong Choices

In the first quarter of “ Nudge, ” the authors review a few of the reasons why we make wrong choices.

We pick the default setting (status quo bias)

We have a strong tendency to go along or stick with the default setting. For example, few people choose “custom installation” on their software.

And few people opt out of organ donation if that’s the default setting in their country. Yet, very few people opt-in to donate their organs because that’s not the default setting and because it goes against the path of least resistance (next item on the list).

We pick the path of least resistance

We have a strong tendency to follow the path of least resistance. The path of least resistance it’s often the default setting, but the two are not exactly the same.

For example, depending on how items are stocked in a supermarket or a cafeteria, people end up consuming different quantities of food because some of them will be more convenient to reach.

We use simplistic heuristics

Heuristics are mental shortcuts that, often, lead us to the wrong conclusions.

Among the heuristics are anchoring, availability, representativeness, overconfidence, loss aversion, etc. (read more in “ Thinking Fast and Slow “).

The most important fact to remember about heuristics is that they prevent us from optimal decision-making.

We choose mindlessly

For some activities, we end up choosing at random even though the consequences might be important (eating, for example, as an experiment proved we don’t eat till we’re full but based on the dish size).

We use poor mental accounting

Mental accounting is a topic very dear to Richard Thaler as it’s strictly related to behavioral economics. In brief, it says that we are not rational with the way we spend, save, or invest our money.

We don’t understand randomness

We see more relations than actually exist (hot-hand fallacy) and end up jumping to conclusions that are often wrong.

We also have a poor understanding of randomness and we expect randomness to look random. But randomness is “XXX” much as it is “YXY” (example of London bombing map).

#4. Temptation & Arousal

Finally, temptation deserves its own chapter. Temptation, coupled with mindlessness and arousal, is what leads most people down a path they don’t really want.

We don’t want to get fat and unhealthy, yet we keep staying on the couch when we know we should move.

And we smoke that pack of cigarettes even when we know we shouldn’t.

In these situations, nudging can be very helpful to get us going in the right direction and to decrease the incidence of smoking and obesity in the population.

Arousal refers to the bad decisions we make in a state of arousal, which we always underestimate when we’re not aroused (example of Ulysses tying himself to a mast).

#5. How to Nudge

The authors provide a lot of ideas from social-psychology research on how we can effectively nudge people.

For example:

To decrease pollution, publish a list of the most polluting companies
To increase saving rates, make contributions towards retirement plans the default option

If you are interested in more practical applications of persuasion, also check out Pre-Suasion , Influence , and “ best books on persuasion “.

Companies Already Use Nudging for Manipulation

Companies have an incentive to misuse nudging to make you spend more. For example, they can pre-select options that are better for them but not necessarily for you.

Why don’t these imperfections get corrected by the market? The author says that markets are not perfect and there is no invisible hand to always fix mispricings (or punish abusive practices).

When the costs are hidden or difficult to find out, companies keep selling overpriced products and services. Extended warranties are one such example

Also read “ how corporations manipulate you “.

More Applications of Libertarian Paternalism

The authors also go a bit further astray from nudging and expand on the concept of libertarian paternalism.

For example, they talk about:

Reducing healthcare costs by foregoing the “right to sue”
Automatically investing a higher portion of pay rises (which has a different mental accounting)
Lock away money saved from cigarettes and only unlock it if smoke-free

The Morality of Nudging: It’s OK As Long As It’s Good For The Nudged

Libertarian paternalism is a policy choice and, as such, its acceptance varies heavily depending on political affiliations.

Says the authors:

Our basic conclusions is that the evalution of nudges depends on their effects. Whether they hurt people or help them.

The authors say that it’s not possible to avoid “choice architecture” and, hence, it’s not possible to avoid nudging people.

Thus, “positive nudging” is the only possible way.

On climate change:

If the problem of climate change is to be seriously addressed, the ultimate strategy is based on incentives and not on demand and control

I love books like “ Nudge ” which can sprinkle some great humor together with the bountiful wisdom they share. For example:

The group average does exert a significant influence, but there are exceptions. A woman will eat less on dates and a man will eat more in the belief that women are impressed by maly eating. Not for men: they’re not

On extended warranties and their general overprice:

Please note that extended are plentiful in the extended world and many people buy them. Hint: don’t

On the of “homo economicus”, which the author calls “econ”:

If you are an econ, you can skip this section of the book. Unless you want to understand the behavior of your spouse, kids, and other humans.

On getting informed ahead of troubles:

If you are married or plan to get married, do you know your state’s laws on alimony and child support? Oh, never mind, there is no chance that you will divorce

Nudging to spend without guilt

Nudging in the US means enticing people to save more.

But for some people -like yours truly- the problem is not in saving, but in spending freely and without guilt. You can nudge yourself to spend more freely and without worrying, for example, by designating an account as a “fun account” outside of your normal accounting.

Boomerang effect : don’t let people know their actions are better than the social norm

When you let people that their actions are better than the social norm, they feel like they can let themselves go and have “goodwill to spend”.

But the exception is when you make them feel good for their choices, in which case they don’t adjust.

Nudging in interaction designs

Product designers should understand psychology to design good and functional products (and many don’t).

On the remote, for example, the “on” button should be the biggest, together with volume. But often, they’re not.

Stocks are almost certain to go up (really???)

I can’t believe an author I respect as much as Thaler did come up with this BS. How on earth can he say that “on a 20-year period stocks are almost certainly to go up”?? If a war started, are stocks likely to go up?

Some debunked psychology

Some of the examples in “ Nudge ” have been relegated to debunked psychology in the recent replication crisis .

Nudge is 30% psychology and 70% government policy.

I enjoyed the psychology part albeit there is some valid criticism to what’s included as a “nudge” and the validity of some studies. And I agree with several of the pro-social government policies it encourages.

Best books on psychology

or get the book on Amazon

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Book Review-Nudge: Improving Decisions about Health, Wealth, and Happiness

Home Adoption and Change Book Review ... Book Review-Nudge: Improving Decisions about Health, Wealth, and Happiness

April 10, 2017
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Robert Bogue
Adoption and Change , Book Review , Professional

It’s an artful thing to create the right choices so that people are nudged gently into the behaviors that are best for them. That’s what Nudge: Improving Decisions about Health, Wealth, and Happiness is all about – helping people make the best choices for themselves. With the idea of libertarian paternalism, choice architects help to shape the way that people choose.

Choice Architects

Inherent in the idea that you can nudge someone is that doing so is subtle and something they barely notice. There is no such thing as a completely neutral design. Simple psychological factors, like the desire to pick the first option, means that choice architects carefully manage whose name is first on a ballot. Choice architects are the ones that are structuring the system such that the choice that is the best for people is the one they get most of the time.

Most of the time when we’re consumers, we have no idea what work has gone into the choice architecture. We don’t know that we’re subtly being engaged in ways that help us – or help the organization that we’re shopping with. However, these subtle influences are there, as we find impulse items on the end of the shelves in grocery stores and drive past stores that are having going out of business sales – continuously.

As architects of choices we rarely consider all the factors that might go into someone selecting a particular choice. Instead, we create a list of choices quickly and move on. Rarely do we think about the order that the choices occur in or what the default answer should be.

Nudge insists that there is no neutral choice design. So whatever we do, whether by intent or by design, will shift the results – at least slightly.

Libertarian Paternalism

Paternalism is thinking about the consumer as a child who cannot make good decisions. Authoritarian or dictatorial paternalism restricts the choices that consumers have, and only gives them the solution that they must “choose” because someone – a choice architect – said this is the only solution for them. Most of us would resist this attempt to enforce a choice on us. It’s what we expect out of communist dictators, and, certainly in the United States, we’re not going to stand for it.

Libertarian paternalism has the same basis but instead of preventing what the choice architect sees as sub-optimal solutions, the choices are allowed, but they’re deemphasized. The degree to which you must go out of your way to pick a different choice is a measure of how truly libertarian it is. If it’s easy to choose, it’s libertarian. If it’s hard to choose, it’s more authoritarian – disguised as a real choice.

The authors believe that libertarian paternalism is OK, or even a moral obligation where authoritarian paternalism is wrong, but admit that the line between these two extremes isn’t always the easiest to distinguish.

The goal is to balance the number of people getting the perceived optimal solution while maintaining their ability to make choices for themselves.

The Paradox of Choice

The first step is to ensure that the person has as many options available as makes sense. The challenge with this is knowing how many options make sense. In an ideal world, every option would be available to the chooser, but in a practical world, choices promote inaction, and inaction is frequently (if not always) not the best option.

The Paradox of Choice skillfully points out that we like our choices less the more options we have – and we make fewer decisions. In short, more options are the enemy to actions. If we want someone to make a choice, we need to manage the number of options.

Forced Choice

Brené Brown is careful when confronted with forced choices – “either-or dilemmas,” as she calls them. She wonders in Rising Strong who has something to gain by forcing the choice. In the case of our nudges, the hope is that the person making the choice is benefited. With an ethical choice architect, the forced choice causes the person to steer their own course. With luck, the choice architect created the situation to keep most of the people off the rocks most of the time.

The forced choice is a tool of the choice architect. They get to make someone choose between A or B, and in the process cause the person to indicate what they think is better. The problem with the forced choice, in addition to whether it really serves the person making the choice, is that too few people take action, even when faced with a straightforward choice, and what is to be done with the folks that fail to make a choice.

The Power of Default

The next tool in the choice architect’s toolbox is the power of the default option. If you do nothing, you’ll get option C. This option is often very powerful in terms of the number of people that fall into it. The option is typically one which isn’t particularly risky, because no one wants to inflict undue risk on someone just because they didn’t decide; so the choice architect creates a safer, but less rewarding, option to be the default.

We learned that the default answer is the one which is taken when neither the rider nor the elephant are paying attention to what’s happening. (See Rider-Elephant-Path in The Happiness Hypothesis for more on how powerful the defaults are.) The default is all too often the most popular answer, because people making the decisions are neither experts nor sufficiently engaged to research the correct result.

Without insisting that the default is a specific action, most consumers fall victim to the “status quo bias.” That is, they expect that things are going relatively OK now, so why would they change? In fact, while we sometimes describe people as change adverse, it’s not that they’re change adverse at all, they just see no point in it.

John Kotter’s work in The Heart of Change and Leading Change includes a model, in which first step is to break this inertia by creating a sense of urgency. This is sometimes called a “burning platform” from which people must jump. While this is an aggressive strategy, it’s often needed to fight the strong pull of the status quo bias.

Controlled by Experts

Too often, consumers find themselves in a foreign land. The foreign land isn’t on any map that you find, but is instead demarcated by the front door of the store they walk into. Whether it’s buying a new TV or shopping for wine for a special evening, the consumer is rarely as educated as the store workers. In this scenario, it’s relatively easy for the salesperson to overwhelm you with technical jargon and features and to nudge you into purchasing what they want you to buy.

In retail, particularly electronics, it’s common for manufacturers to run contests for store employees based on their ability to sell that manufacturer’s products – sometimes even a single product. In these cases, the manufacturers are intentionally tipping the scales in their direction through nudging the sales folks.

Nudging and Shoving

The distance between a nudge and a shove are often too close to call. Nudges aren’t forced: they are, after all, libertarian paternalism. But even in the spirit of not removing options, sometimes the influence of the “expert” salesperson can drive people to a product in a way that feels more like a shove than a nudge.

The focus of the book is on nudges, though it’s clear that, by knowing what is a nudge and not a shove, there’s an inherent risk that some people will use shoves instead of nudges – because in the short term, they’re often more effective.

Mistakes in Choosing

Kahneman in Thinking, Fast and Slow and Hubbard in How to Measure Anything speak volumes about how our ability to make guesses, the right choices, and decisions can be systemically flawed. The rules of thumb that we use to make our decisions are sometimes grossly distorted in their applicability or effectiveness. I have a deck that isn’t square on the house, because the person I hired used the rule of thumb – based on the Pythagorean theorem – of a side length of 3 feet and a side length of 4 feet should have a diagonal of 5 feet. That’s easy enough when the deck is small, but when it’s a 20′ by 40′ deck, the amount of measurement error is substantial.

It’s because people make so many mistakes in choosing that it’s important that choice architects exist to disrupt the incorrect application of rules of thumb or other knowledge in domains where it’s not helpful.

Unintended Consequences

It used to be that Christmas clubs were great ways for banks to make money. People deposited money on a regular basis in an account that accrued little or no interest. They could withdraw these funds to purchase gifts for Christmas. It was an ingenious idea for the banks and, at a level, helped consumers. No one wanted to be caught short at Christmas and be unable to buy toys for their children. So the banks really won, and the consumers who weren’t capable of saving throughout the year with normal options were given a solution.

However, another choice opened. That is, the ability to charge things on credit. So now, even if you didn’t have the money to pay for the toys that you wanted to get your children, you could borrow that money on a credit card and pay a substantially higher interest rate on the money that you borrowed – making the banks more money.

This is a case where the choices got away from the choice architects but in a way that further favored the banks. No one would have necessarily predicted that credit cards would virtually eliminate Christmas clubs, but that’s what they did. (See Diffusion of Innovations for more on unintended consequences – even on well-intended interventions.)

Social Nudges

While I’ve shared about structural nudges – those relying on the architecture of the situation – they are not necessarily the most powerful. As is revealed in Influencer , there are many ways to influence a person, some of which are social. Social nudges have accomplices who sway the decisions of others. Whether the accomplices are knowing accomplices being paid, or are instead just caught up in the system themselves and decide to amplify the message to capture others through social media, they are accomplices nonetheless.

The researcher Solomon Asch demonstrated that if you asked someone a simple question, you could get 100% right answers – unless the subject heard someone else give the wrong answer. In those cases, even though the questions were easy, the subjects gave incorrect answers as much as 1/3 rd of the time.

So powerful are social nudges that they can sometimes create a panic. In Seattle in 1954, there was an epidemic of windshield pitting – that never actually was. Someone noticed pitting on their windshield and shared this with their friends, who also noticed the pitting. They got together to wonder what was causing this damage to their cars and proceeded to drag more people and media in. That is, until it was finally concluded that pitting was a normal effect of driving a car. The pits had been with the cars all along, but someone noticed them, and concern for folks’ precious cars continued to feed more energy into the epidemic.

This isn’t an isolated incident. It happens all the time where something has been going on “forever”, gets discovered, and becomes some conspiracy plot that must be addressed.

Epidemics are facilitated through a concept called “priming”. That is, we’re more likely to follow a train of thought once it has been laid down. This is at the heart of social hacking. Social hacking is the art of gaining access to systems, equipment, or information by use of social, rather than technical, means. In simple terms, just getting someone to say yes a few times before they answer a question they should tell you no to increases the likelihood that they’ll say yes. (See my book review of Social Hacking for more.)

By creating the expectation that there is something going on or a preferred choice, we sensitize our reticular activating system (RAS) and become more aware. The RAS is important for our wake-sleep cycle, but also pays a critical role in what we look for – and what we look for, we’ll find. (See Change or Die for more on the RAS.)

Checklist for the Choice Architect

As choice architects, we should consider how to create effective nudges, and here’s a book-provided mnemonic for that:

i N centives
U nderstand mappings
G ive feedback
E xpect error
S tructure complex choices

You may not get your nudges exactly right but maybe this review is just the nudge you need to read Nudges .

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Public Speaking

Book Review: Nudge: Improving Decisions About Health, Wealth, and Happiness by Richard H. Thaler and Cass R. Sunstein

Nudge is a book for people who want to help –but not force– others to make better decisions.

I first learned of this book when Daniel Kahneman raved about it in Thinking Fast and Slow . I was looking forward to Nudge and was not disappointed. I recommend it to anyone who might be presenting choices to others, and therefore affecting those choices.

Nudge is about choice architecture : the ways that various factors in how a choice is presented may affect the decisions made by the chooser.

The heart of the book can be summarized through a clever (if imperfect) mnemonic device: NUDGES.

i N centives (pricing and more: bonuses that can be offered, and even penalties)
U nderstandable options (or as the authors say “Understand mappings”)
D efaults (they are often taken, so make the default the best choice)
G ive feedback (it helps improve the quality of decisions)
E xpect error (and help people recover from it)
S tructure complex choices (a small number of choices at a time)

By using NUDGES, choice architects can be more effective at helping people to make better choices. For many excellent examples, from placement of food items in a cafeteria to software that makes you delay sending emails to that seem to be uncivil, read Nudge .

Jun 1, 2019

Nudge - Book Review

Updated: Aug 12

A yellow cover with black elephants and text

" Nudge: Improving Decisions About Health, Wealth, and Happiness ," 2008, 2017, was written by Richard H. Thaler, a Nobel Prize laureate in economics, and Cass R. Sunstein, also distinguished as a Holberg Prize winner.

Central to the book's premise is the introduction of the "nudge" concept – a subtle yet influential force capable of inciting individuals to make favorable choices and take proactive steps. Rooted in a liberal perspective, the authors adeptly navigate the delicate balance between safeguarding freedom of choice and offering gentle guidance. The ensuing summary delineates their methodology, lightly referencing illustrative examples, as the book primarily delves into real-world instances and scenarios showcasing positive shifts underpinned by their economic principles, achievable through the skillful application of nudges. These transformative instances span diverse realms: financial affairs encompassing savings, investments, loans, and the privatization of social security; considerations of well-being spanning insurance, organ donations, and environmental preservation; and matters of civil liberties, spanning the selection of educational institutions, insurance services, and the demarcation of church and state in marital affairs.

Perhaps one of the most globally renowned instances of nudge application is the placement of fly stickers inside urinals at the Amsterdam airport. This measure notably curbed incidents of misalignment.

The book covers the following topics:

NUDGE - Fundamental Concepts and Principles

NUDGE Tools

Peer pressure, aiding in decision-making, simplifying complex processes.

Incentivizing Behaviors

Integrating Knowledge into the NUDGE Framework

Addressing objections to nudge.

This summary is a valuable resource for professionals in knowledge management, product and service planning, and individuals involved in change management. For those desiring deeper insights, it is strongly recommended to delve into the book.

NUDGE - Fundamental Concepts and Principles

Introducing the NUDGE Concept and Its Underlying Principles

To foster a comprehensive comprehension of the NUDGE concept and its bedrock, let us embark by elucidating pertinent terms:

NUDGE – An inconspicuous prod possessing the potential for substantial change or influence. Consider, for instance, the dwindling markings on a fuel gauge, signifying a decline in fuel level; toggling a switch to illuminate a light hastens many of us to refuel, even though this information isn't novel. For clarity, the authors remind us: do not misconstrue this term with the Yiddish "NOODGE," which translates to "snooze" (an entertaining testament to its prevalence…).

CHOICE ARCHITECT – An individual vested with the responsibility of arranging information to facilitate decision-making. This role proves pivotal in deftly navigating the NUDGE concept, assisting us in traversing a world with knowledge and potential.

LIBERTARIAN PATERNALISM – A seemingly paradoxical term that melds liberalism with a modicum of paternalistic influence. It enables individuals' gentle steerage (or nudging) toward choices that augment their well-being. Deciphering what constitutes "good" emerges as a multifaceted matter, extensively tackled within the book. The underlying guiding principle is to direct toward avenues of maximum benefit while minimizing the risk of harm. Should professed intentions diverge from actions due to human proclivities, the paternalistic liberal stance involves offering aid and nudging back onto the right path. An unembellished example, as embodied by President Barack Obama, involves instituting initiatives to combat obesity in schools. Why is this necessary despite aligning with human desires? Because our human nature is strewn with biases that lead to irrational conduct (as expounded in Kahneman's "Thinking, Fast and Slow"): a penchant for immediate gains over long-term repercussions, avoidance of intricate actions, and aversion to decisions that appear convoluted. Notably, NUDGE proves considerably more lenient than rigid mandates and obligations.

NUDGE tools are far from arbitrary; they find their roots in our biases, encompassing representation, availability, heuristics, commitment to sustainability, framing, and beyond. These biases frequently propel us to act illogically, and NUDGE tools are fashioned to counteract these tendencies. The authors advocate the judicious employment of these tools where intervention is warranted.

The society encompassing us exerts an influence over our actions. Why does this occur? In most instances, we tend to conform and assimilate. Operating within these principles involves:

Providing information about actions taken by others.

Remaining within a group where colleagues hold sway.

Garnering people's commitment to step (priming).

NUDGE strategies encompass:

Displaying the percentage of individuals who have already decided or opted for a specific path you aim to promote.

Employing phrases like "More people prefer..."

Conveying the actions others have already embarked upon.

Instilling the expectation that an individual with a favorable opinion will be the first to voice it, thereby encouraging confident and vocal expression.

Inquiring about people's intentions concerning the topic you seek to endorse, solitary discussion can heighten their commitment to acting in that direction.

Examples include:

The "Don't Mess with Texas" campaign, which curbed littering.

Highlighting individuals' significant tax contributions to deter tax evasion.

Contrasting an account holder's power consumption graph with the entire city.

Recommendation:

More than merely informing people that their behavior is above average is required. For instance, presenting a power consumption graph, as depicted above, to those consuming less might trigger an adverse response. However, incorporating a smiling graph emoji alongside it can alleviate this impact. This touch of positive feedback prevents negative shifts in behavior that align with the norm.

The realm of choices can indeed pose challenges for us as users.

Abiding by these principles entails:

Simplifying the decision-making process.

Reducing the number of options presented.

Granting users the freedom to modify their choices effortlessly.

Acknowledging the potential for human fallibility in decision-making.

Default Setting – Establishing a default option aligned with the desired outcome. In scenarios where multiple choices exist, and a universally optimal selection is absent, the default setting is tailored to group affiliation or individual preferences.

Mandatory Selection – Prohibiting progression without opting for one of the alternatives.

Streamlining Choices – Condensing the array of available selections to the essential ones.

Supplying Personalized Supplementary Information to facilitate decision-making.

Illustrations include:

Countries implementing a "positive" default for expressing willingness to donate organs, leading to a notable surge in donor percentages.

Preventing the possibility of inserting a train ticket in the wrong orientation.

Offering information about available schools to ensure well-informed and strategic choices rather than settling for familiar or convenient options.

Recommendations:

When confronted with any choice, meticulous consideration is imperative to determine whether it's prudent to compel the user to decide or if providing a default option proves more suitable. There exists no one-size-fits-all solution...

And always bear in mind – accommodating user-initiated changes made easy.

Implementing intricate processes often proves to be a formidable challenge, frequently resulting in resistance or non-compliance among individuals.

The operational principles encompass:

Recognizing the inherent human tendency to reject complex implementations.

Prioritizing simplicity.

Disseminating knowledge.

Adapting communication to the specific target audience.

Streamlining ostensibly intricate procedures.

Identifying and rectifying common errors.

Decomplicating intricate choices into streamlined, uniform steps.

Simplifying queries and responses related to decision-making.

Furnishing pertinent information to enable personalized decision-making.

Opting for deferred decisions in the present, with automatic implementation in the future.

Enhancing congruence between accompanying symbols and desired actions.

Detecting and averting common errors through feedback and corrective suggestions.

Facilitating correction before, during, and after the process, ensuring adherence to the correct course.

Illustrations include:

Committing to heightened savings as earnings increase.

Preventing sending an email containing the term "attachment" when no file is affixed.

Forwarding a pre-filled tax refund form to an employed individual, necessitating only a signature for return.

Incorporating relevant icons alongside actions or selections.

Introducing a dedicated credit card for donations with automated recognition of tax deductions.

A synergistic relationship exists between supportive measures and the simplification of processes. It is prudent to contemplate these aspects both individually and collectively.

Incentivizing Behaviors

Incentives and pricing stand as the foundational pillars of any free-market economy. Even when applying the NUDGE approach, their significance should always be considered. It remains crucial to ascertain whether incentives, be they positive or negative, can effectively propel individuals into action.

Operational principles encompass:

Customizing incentives for groups or individuals.

Employing a "carrot or stick" paradigm.

Offering insights into available incentives or feasibility.

Spotlighting the costs of inaction or incorrect choices.

Reinforcing or underscoring familiar incentives or feasibility to stimulate decision-making and action.

Alleviating conflicts between pros and cons during the decision-making process.

Fostering feasibility by conveying content that resonates with decision-makers.

Displaying the message "Drink more water. When sweating, the body loses fluids" on pamphlets distributed at sporting events.

Portraying the feasibility of higher education by bridging the gap for high school students, juxtaposing differences between a Mercedes car and a Kia, and prominently featuring registration forms.

The "Turns on Whoever Clicks First" campaign – champions a cultural shift in seat belt usage.

When devising incentives, it is prudent to inquire: Who wields influence over the decision? (Not exclusively the user or payer) Incentive concepts should be tailored accordingly.

Ensure that the incentive is conspicuously displayed and readily noticeable by the decision-maker.

Knowledge intricately weaves into the array of previously expounded NUDGE tools. Nevertheless, a few additional pivotal points warrant emphasis.

Timely dissemination of knowledge.

Tailoring knowledge to the specific context.

Artful framing of knowledge to harmonize with NUDGE objectives.

Concentrating on pertinent knowledge.

Strategically assessing the opportune moment for NUDGE implementation and knowledge delivery.

Seamlessly integrating knowledge alongside choices, responses, and throughout the decision-making process.

Infusing lesser-known information to influence decision considerations.

llustrations include:

Orchestrating gatherings with parents of eighth-grade children to introduce university savings programs.

Mandating the prominent display of graphic fuel efficiency and environmental performance data, complemented by relative positioning based on Ministry of Transport statistics, for comparable vehicles.

Publicly disclosing a blocklist of 100 companies with subpar environmental practices (or in any other sphere).

Appending a "meets the standard" emblem for companies showcasing excellence in specific domains.

Exercise prudence to avoid inundating with an excess of knowledge.

For the authors of this book, the task of delivering a conscientious nudge while upholding a liberal perspective is a formidable challenge. This nuanced approach reverberates throughout the book, manifesting in explicit assertions and the curation of subjects warranting NUDGE implementation. Yet, the authors do not shy away from addressing potential objections and furnishing their counterarguments:

Slippery Slope

Concern: Instigating NUDGE in appropriate contexts might inadvertently pave the way for its application in less fitting scenarios.

Response: While this is a valid consideration, the drawbacks of abstaining from NUDGE outweigh the associated risks. Furthermore, the provision for effortless decision reversal acts as a protective measure against potential harm.

Problem with Choice Architects

Concern: Apprehensions arise regarding potential bias in those executing NUDGE, favoring choices aligned with their agendas.

Response: Transparency, to the maximum extent, is imperative. Upholding freedom of choice, even in the presence of bias, helps mitigate this concern.

The Right to Make Mistakes

Concern: The discourse revolves around individuals' entitlement to make choices, even if not inherently advantageous, potentially resulting in uniformity in erroneous decisions.

Response: Just as we wouldn't thrust children into deep waters due to the universality of mistakes, assisting people is prudent—especially in matters where their preferences are evident.

Resistance to Bias

Concern: Opposition may arise against intervention, even when the intervention aligns with the correct course.

Response: Tackle resistance with perseverance. Pursuing a legitimate goal remains justified.

Neutrality of Concern

Concern: Governments or public entities should maintain impartiality.

Response: In instances of providing assistance rather than harm to individuals, unswerving neutrality is not an absolute mandate.

The authors adeptly navigate these objections, striking an artful equilibrium between guided influence and preserving individual autonomy within a liberal framework.

Change Managment
Book reviews

QuestionsPresented

Book review: nudge.

The book is concerned with the way people deal with choices in their lives. The authors refer to an arrangement of options– for example, the layout of a food buffet– as choice architecture. Choice architecture is manipulable, and choice architects have the ability to control decision making in a meaningful way through the presentation and arrangement of options. “Humans predictably err,” and, by understanding these cognitive biases, choice architects can shape outcomes. Richard H. Thaler & Cass R. Sunstein, Nudge: Improving Decisions About Health, Wealth, and Happiness 7 (Penguin Books 2009) (2008). There is an entire set of studies and literature on cognitive biases that is emerging, particularly in the behavioral economics literature. Examples include confirmation bias , self-serving bias , and anchoring bias . A detailed exploration of these and other cognitive biases is beyond the scope of the book and this post. What is important for Thaler and Sunstein is that everyone has these systematic biases. Also important to Nudge is pointing out the “misconception…that it is possible to avoid influencing people’s choices”; in other words, there is no such thing as neutral choice architecture. Id. at 10; see also id. at 249-51 (discussing different types of neutrality and situations in which neutrality may be possible). Intended or not, every arrangement of options has an effect on those faced with the options.

The core of Nudge ‘s contribution is an approach to choice architecture (which also could be thought of as system organization) the authors call “libertarian paternalism.” As the authors explain:

Libertarian paternalists urge that people should be free to choose. We strive to design policies that maintain or increase freedom of choice. When we use the term libertarian to modify the word paternalism , we simply mean liberty-preserving….Libertarian paternalists want to make it easy for people to go their own way; they do not want to burden those who want to exercise their freedom. The paternalistic aspect lies in the claim that it is legitimate for choice architects to try to influence people’s behavior in order to make their lives longer, healthier, and better. In other words, we argue for self-conscious efforts, by institutions in the private sector and also by government, to steer people’s choices in directions that will improve their lives. In our understanding, a policy is “paternalistic” if it tries to influence choices in a way that will make choosers better off, as judged by themselves .

Id. at 5 (quotation marks omitted). Thaler and Sunstein call this influencing “nudging”:

A nudge…is any aspect of the choice architecture that alters people’s behavior in a predictable way without forbidding any options or significantly changing their economic incentives. To count as a mere nudge, the intervention must be easy and cheap to avoid. Nudges are not mandates. Putting the fruit at eye level counts as a nudge. Banning junk food does not.

Id. at 6. The authors acknowledge that “some of our nudges do, in a sense, impose cognitive (rather than material) costs, and in that sense alter incentives,” but argue that “nudges count as such, and qualify as libertarian paternalism, only if any costs are low.” Id. at 8.

Much of the book covers case studies showing nudging in action or how the greater use of effective choice architecture could improve outcomes for people. These examples include saving money, financial investment, the privatization of social security, prescription drug plans, organ donation policies, environmental conservation, school choice, health care, and marriage policy. While I’m not sure that Thaler and Sustein’s proposal for a “privatization” of marriage in which states only issue civil unions fits neatly within this book’s framework, I do think it could make a good topic for a future post here. If you are especially interested in these and the many other examples of nudges, the revised edition of the book or the authors’ regularly updated blog are good places to look.

Near the end of the book, the authors respond to certain objections to their approach. The first objection is that of the classic slippery slope : if we permit this limited paternalistic intervention, it won’t be long before government overreaches, and “highly intrusive interventions will surely follow.” Id. at 239. Thaler and Sunstein have substantive and structural responses to this objection: first, they would prefer this sort of critic to engage with them as to the merits of the chosen policy preferences rather than the structure itself, and second, this sort of structure is inevitable: “It is pointless to ask government simply to stand aside. Choice architects, whether private or public, must do something .” Id. at 240. They continue:

Those who make this argument sometimes speak as if government can be absent– as if the default terms that set the background come from nature or from the sky. This is a big mistake. To be sure, the default terms that now apply in any particular context might be best…. But that view must be defended, not assumed. And it would be odd for those who generally hold government in extremely low esteem to think that in all domains, past governments have somehow stumbled onto a set of ideal arrangements.

Id. at 241. Thaler and Sustein also do not think that a traditionalist, Burkean response based on the wisdom of longstanding social practices has much value here because “inertia, procrastination, and imitation often drive our behavior.” Id.

A second objection is that choice architects may have their own agendas, the implication being that these agendas could be “evil” or otherwise not in people’s best interest. Recognizing “that choice architects in all walks of life have incentives to nudge people in directions that benefit the architects…rather than the users,” the authors nevertheless believe that “lin[ing] up incentives when we can, and employ[ing] monitoring and transparency when we can’t” will be sufficient to overcome this issue. Id. at 242. Freedom of choice and transparency are important in this area. Related is John Rawls’ publicity principle: “In its simplest form, the publicity principle bans government from selecting a policy that it would not be able or willing to defend publicly to its own citizens.” Id. at 247. This would prohibit secrecy on the part of the government when it alters legal default rules, for example.

Thaler and Sunstein present and respond to other objections, but, at this point, I would like to both encourage readers to include their questions and critiques in the comment section below and offer my own thoughts.

Second, I think the second objection I mentioned above– a concern over the goodness of the intentions of choice architects– is a serious one that the authors fail to rebut sufficiently. Anyone who spends time studying cognitive biases and systematic human behavior should be able to take that knowledge and design a system that preferences any particular outcome, even ones that are not “beneficial” to users. Thaler and Sunstein recognize, through the myriad examples they cite throughout their book, that this happens all the time; they simply chalk it up to bad choice architecture and poor nudging. This might very well be the case in the examples they chose. The “bad” outcomes there could be a result of a lack of organization, planning, awareness, knowledge, or forethought. But what if similarly “bad” outcomes resulted from a knowledgeable, organized, aware choice architect and choice architecture? Freedom of choice and transparency might help here, but there seems to be no special reason why they should. An early example in the book is a school cafeteria in which a choice architect may organize food in a way that makes students more likely to choose fruits and vegetables and less likely to choose junk food. The reason this works has nothing to do with the nature of the fruits and vegetables (or that nature vis-a-vis the students) and everything to do with the systematic biases of the students themselves. So long as the libertarian constraint is in place, the students can choose whatever they want, but the paternalistic element permits the choice architect to select any option as the preferred option. Fruit, vegetables, and junk food are mere variables in this arrangement. (In political theory terms, the structure here is largely deontological, the right to define “the good” resting solely with the choice architect.) Additionally, Thaler and Sunstein place no duties on the choice architect in his or her selection of the “good” alternative. An obvious one might be a duty to be informed. The cafeteria administrator might have some idea that fruits and vegetables are healthier than junk food, but we also are told that dark chocolate and red wine (though not for children) have health benefits too. How should one evaluate this particular tradeoff, and how should one evaluate it against all of the dietary decisions that go into putting together a balanced meal? Does a “balanced meal” mean the same thing for every student? For a majority of students?

An architect

I think concerns about the qualifications and motivations of choice architects are greater than Thaler and Sunstein admit, and, if nothing else, deserved a more adequate defense. Overall, though, I am glad I read the book, and I think it does a good job of spurring discourse. Irrespective of whether you’ve read Nudge , I welcome your thoughts below.

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Nudge Summary and Key Lessons | Richard H. Thaler

“Nudge: Improving Decisions About Health , Wealth, and Happiness” is a book by economist Richard H. Thaler and legal scholar Cass R. Sunstein, published in 2008.

Quick Summary: The book popularized the concept of “nudge theory,” which suggests that positive reinforcement and indirect suggestions can significantly influence people’s behavior and decision-making processes in a way that is beneficial to them, without restricting their freedom of choice at any cost.

Nudge Full Summary

Choice architecture.

At the heart of the book is the concept of “choice architecture,” which refers to the design of environments in which people make choices.

Choice architects, like policymakers or designers of systems and processes, have the ability to structure these environments in ways that “nudge” people toward making better decisions.

Thaler and Sunstein argue that choice architecture is inevitable because some design has to exist, whether it’s carefully considered or not.

So, they contend, why not design it in a way that helps people?

Libertarian Paternalism

Thaler and Sunstein introduce the notion of “libertarian paternalism,” combining elements of libertarianism (freedom of choice) and paternalism (making decisions for the greater good of others).

The idea is to steer people in beneficial directions while still maintaining their freedom to choose.

They stress that nudges are not mandates. People remain free to go their own way, but the choice architecture makes the beneficial option more salient or easier to choose.

Automatic vs. Reflective Systems

Drawing on dual-system theories in psychology , the authors discuss two types of thinking: the “Automatic System,” which is fast, instinctive, and emotional; and the “Reflective System,” which is slower, more deliberate, and logical.

Nudges primarily aim to guide our Automatic System in the right direction while still leaving the Reflective System free to opt out or choose otherwise.

Real-world Applications

The book dives into a range of real-world applications, exploring how nudges can be used to make improvements in various aspects of society:

Personal Finance : Simplifying the process of enrollment and selection in retirement savings plans can help people save more and make better investment choices.
Health : Placing healthier foods at eye level in school cafeterias can nudge kids to make healthier eating choices.
Energy Conservation : Giving people feedback about their energy usage compared to their neighbors can encourage them to use less energy.
Government Policies : Making enrollment in public assistance programs simpler or default can nudge more eligible people to take advantage of them.
Organ Donation : Switching from an opt-in to an opt-out system can significantly increase the number of organ donors.

Ethical Considerations

Thaler and Sunstein also address the ethical concerns surrounding nudging. They argue that since choice architecture is unavoidable, it’s better to design it in a transparent and beneficial manner. They advocate for “nudges” that are consistent with people’s values and that aim to improve their lives by their own standards.

However, they caution that poorly-designed nudges can have unintended consequences, and there are limits to what nudges can accomplish.

The authors conclude by urging professionals and policymakers to be mindful choice architects, leveraging the power of nudges to make it easier for people to make decisions that will benefit them.

The book has been highly influential, leading to the application of nudge theory in various fields such as public policy, economics , and healthcare. It has also inspired the establishment of “nudge units” in governments around the world, designed to apply behavioral insights to policy-making.

Nudge Summary | Richard H. Thaler, Cass R. Sunstein

Also Read: The Innovator’s Dilemma Summary and Key Lessons

Key Lessons

1. the power of default options.

One of the most profound insights from “Nudge” is how potent default options can be. People tend to go with the flow of pre-set options, mainly because of inertia, a desire to avoid complicated decisions, or the assumption that the default is somehow endorsed or recommended.

Consider the example of organ donations.

Countries with an opt-out system (where citizens are default donors unless they choose not to be) have dramatically higher donation rates compared to those with an opt-in system.

Similarly, automatic enrollment in retirement savings plans significantly boosts participation rates.

Why it Matters ?

Recognizing the power of defaults can be used both to shape behavior for the collective good and to protect individuals from potential exploitation. Marketers, service providers, or software designers often set defaults that benefit them more than the end user.

Being aware of this can lead to more informed decisions.

Application : Whether you’re a policy designer aiming to encourage a particular behavior or an individual navigating choices, always consider the default settings. They either serve as a powerful tool for nudging in the desired direction or a potential pitfall if left unexamined.

2. Importance of Simplifying Choices

The book emphasizes that people can get overwhelmed when presented with too many choices or with overly complicated decisions. This can lead to decision paralysis or suboptimal choices.

For example, in the domain of personal finance, many employees avoid participating in retirement saving plans because the choices (which funds to pick, how much to invest, etc.) are too complex.

By simplifying the decision process or offering clearer guidance, participation can increase, and better financial outcomes can be achieved.

Complexity can be a barrier. By simplifying choices or processes, you can improve engagement, comprehension, and outcomes.

For individuals, understanding the need for simplicity can help in breaking down tasks or decisions into manageable steps, avoiding unnecessary complications.

Application : Whether designing a user interface, creating a policy, or setting personal goals, focus on clarity and simplicity. Reducing cognitive load can lead to more consistent and positive actions.

Also Read: The Mountain is You Summary and Key Lessons

3. Transparency and Ethical Nudging

Not all nudges are created equal.

While many nudges can steer people toward better outcomes, they can also be used manipulatively. The authors stress the importance of transparency and ensuring that nudges are implemented ethically.

Consider the design of a supermarket.

Placing sugary cereals at eye level for children might increase sales (a nudge), but it’s arguably not in the best interest of the children or their parents from a health perspective.

Ethical considerations ensure that nudges are aligned with the genuine well-being and preferences of those being nudged. Transparent practices ensure that individuals are aware of how choices are being presented to them and can therefore make informed decisions.

Application : If you’re in a position to design systems or choices for others (as a business owner, policymaker, or manager), always evaluate the ethical implications of your designs.

Are you helping individuals make better decisions by their standards, or are you manipulating them for personal gain?

As a consumer or participant, be mindful of how choices are presented and question the motives behind the design.

Final Thoughts

“Nudge” presents an insightful look into the interplay between behavior, decision-making, and subtle external influences. By shedding light on how simple tweaks can produce significant outcomes, Thaler and Sunstein provide a blueprint for policymakers, business leaders , and individuals to foster better decisions in various spheres of life.

It’s a must-read for those intrigued by behavioral economics and its implications for society.

Read our other summaries

Before We Were Yours Summary and Key Lessons
A Court of Frost and Starlight Summary and Key Lessons
First Break All The Rules Summary and Key Lessons
All About Love Summary and Key Lessons | Bell Hooks
How to Read Literature Like a Professor Summary and Key Lessons

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Nudge Vs Shove: A Conversation With Richard Thaler

Greg Rosalsky

Stacey Vanek Smith

Richard Thaler is one of the most important behavioral economists in the world. The Nobel Prize laureate has written extensively on behavioral economics, such as how to get people to save more for retirement. His book, with coauthor Cass Sunstein, Nudge: Improving Decisions about Health, Wealth, and Happiness has sold millions of copies worldwide and influenced governments and companies alike.

The book challenges the notion that humans are absolutely rational in their decision making, a widely accepted model in economics for years. Instead, Thaler and Sunstein show that the decision making process can be heavily influenced for our benefit, sometimes by very small nudges. In the new and final edition of Nudge , they include a lot of new material. One notable concept is called "sludge", or ways to prevent something from happening by making it incredibly difficult to do. One real world example, according to Thaler, is the American tax filing system.

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Nudge: Improving Decisions about Health, Wealth and Happiness

B elief in the existence of free will ebbs further with every page of Nudge. It couldn't be more timely: in an era in which a vast range of options paralyses decision-makers, this witty unpacking of what the authors call "choice architecture" gives an insight into what influences people when they are faced with a decision. It's fascinating but also a little alarming. The authors, distinguished academics in Economics and Law at the University of Chicago, nimbly convey difficult principles through plenty of palatable examples. Nudge is never intimidating, always amusing and elucidating: a jolly economic romp but with serious lessons within.

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Nudge: Improving Decisions About Health, Wealth and Happiness Paperback – 5 Mar. 2009

Coming soon: Nudge: The Final Edition From Cass R. Sunstein and Richard H. Thaler, winner of the 2017 Nobel Prize in Economics, Nudge is the book that changed the way we think about decision-making. Nudge is about choices - how we make them and how we can make better ones. Every day we make decisions: about the things that we buy or the meals we eat; about the investments we make or our children's health and education; even the causes that we champion or the planet itself. Unfortunately, we often choose poorly. We are all susceptible to biases that can lead us to make bad decisions. And, as Thaler and Sunstein show, no choice is ever presented to us in a neutral way. By knowing how people think, we can make it easier for them to choose what is best for them, their families and society. Using dozens of eye-opening examples and original research, the authors demonstrate how to nudge us in the right directions, without restricting our freedom of choice. 'How often do you read a book that is both important and amusing, both practical and deep? ... A must-read for anyonewho wants to see both our minds and our society working better' Daniel Kahneman, author of Thinking, Fast and Slow 'I love this book. It is one of the few books I've read recently that fundamentally changes the way I think about the world' Steven D. Levitt, co-author of Freakonomics

Print length 320 pages
Language English
Publisher Penguin
Publication date 5 Mar. 2009
Dimensions 19.8 x 1.8 x 12.9 cm
ISBN-10 0141040017
ISBN-13 978-0141040011
See all details

Product description

About the author, product details.

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Penguin; 1st edition (5 Mar. 2009)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 320 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0141040017
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0141040011
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 19.8 x 1.8 x 12.9 cm
2 in Academic Sociology
7 in Mathematical Game Theory
40 in Popular Maths

About the authors

Richard h. thaler.

Richard H. Thaler is the Charles R. Walgreen Distinguished Service Professor of Economics and Behavioral Science at the University of Chicago's Graduate School of Business where he director of the Center for Decision Research. He is also a Research Associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research where he co-directs the behavioral economics project. Professor Thaler's research lies in the gap between psychology and economics. He is considered a pioneer in the fields of behavioral economics and finance. He is the author of numerous articles and the books Misbehaving: The Making of Behavioral Economics; Nudge: Improving Decisions about Health, Wealth and Happiness (with Cass Sunstein), The Winner's Curse, and Quasi Rational Economics and was the editor of the collections: Advances in Behavioral Finance, Volumes 1 and 2. He also wrote a series of articles in the Journal of Economics Perspectives called: "Anomalies". He is one of the rotating team of economists who write the Economic View column in the Sunday New York Times.

Cass R. Sunstein

Cass R. Sunstein is the Robert Walmsley University Professor at Harvard Law School, where he is the founder and director of the Program on Behavioral Economics and Public Policy. He is by far the most cited law professor in the United States. From 2009 to 2012 he served in the Obama administration as Administrator of the White House Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs. He has testified before congressional committees, appeared on national television and radio shows, been involved in constitution-making and law reform activities in a number of nations, and written many articles and books, including Simpler: The Future of Government and Wiser: Getting Beyond Groupthink to Make Groups Smarter.

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Are You Getting Nudged? Are You Sure?

Nudges vs. prompts on apps and digital tools: what's the difference.

Updated August 29, 2024 | Reviewed by Jessica Schrader

What some apps claim to be nudges are merely reminders or behavioral prompts.
Nudges are ostensibly more powerful because they use behavioral science in innovative ways.
Sellers who claim to use nudges may be overselling their products and overpromising on results.

In the crowded landscape of apps and digital tools, the term "nudge" has become a popular selling point. Companies are eager to claim that they use nudges to change behavior for the better. This is especially common in human resources management systems and leadership support apps, but personal apps that help with weight loss or mindfulness have also jumped on the nudge bandwagon.

But are these tools truly delivering nudges, or are they just delivering reminders and prompts?

Nudges vs. Prompts: What’s the Difference?

The concept of a "nudge," in the context of promoting behavior change, actually has a precise definition. Cass Sunstein and Richard Thaler used the term in their book Nudge: Improving Decisions About Health, Wealth, and Happiness , to describe their method of applying behavioral science to shape behavior and achieve goals. They define a nudge as:

"Any aspect of the choice architecture that alters people’s behavior in a predictable way without forbidding any options or significantly changing their economic incentives."

The ethical implications of nudges can be very consequential, but they’re not the topic of the current post, so we’ll focus on the first part of the definition here.

The real innovation , and potential power, of a nudge lies in its ability to subtly influence decisions by restructuring the context—what Sunstein and Thaler call the "choice architecture"—in which those decisions are made.

The classic example of a nudge is automatic enrollment in a retirement savings plan. Some organizations have changed the default condition for newly hired employees to be automatically enrolled in a retirement savings plans, and have reported significantly increased participation rates. The potential benefit of this intervention—this nudge—is that many people will have greater financial security than if the default condition is that new employees are not enrolled.

This is a nudge because it has altered the choice architecture. The nudge is the default setting, not a prompt to sign up. It leverages our natural tendencies—like a tendency not to go back and change something that’s automatically set—to encourage a beneficial behavior. And, because it takes advantage of a natural tendency, it does not rely on willpower or motivation . Other interventions to increase savings plan enrollment, like providing information to new hires, or sending them an email reminder, might help, but they’re not nudges, because they do not alter a choice architecture based on behavioral science findings.

Why This Matters

The difference between nudges and prompts isn’t just academic. When companies sell their tools as delivering nudges, they’re making a claim that goes beyond mere reminders. They’re implying that their product leverages behavioral science to create more powerful interventions than mere reminders or behavioral prompts.

Why does this matter? Because nudges are supposed to be an innovation in how we think about influencing behavior. They don’t rely on individuals analyzing evidence, being persuaded, or exerting willpower, like other techniques do. Instead, they work with our natural tendencies, channeling them toward better outcomes. Nudges have become so popular because of this promise—this upgrade from traditional behavior change methods.

When you pay for something that claims to deliver nudges, you should be sure to understand exactly how the seller defines “nudge.” Otherwise, you could be misled about the power and effectiveness of the tool you’ve bought.

Reminders and Prompts Are OK

I don’t want to imply that reminders and prompts are worthless. They can be effective and helpful. A well-timed reminder can encourage someone to follow through on a behavior they might otherwise forget. But these are different from nudges. They rely on the person’s motivation and willpower, rather than restructuring the environment to make the desired behavior more likely without conscious effort.

There are reminders and other non-nudge interventions that use behavioral science. For example, some reminders to exercise more might include a statistic about how many of your friends have exercised lately, which is a persuasion technique called a social norm . That message, however, does not alter the choice architecture, and shouldn’t be considered a nudge according to Thaler and Sunstein’s definition.

Nudge or Not?

If you’re investing in something that claims to use nudges, it’s worth taking a closer look. Are you really getting the kind of behavior-altering, choice-architecture-based intervention that nudges promise? Or are you just getting reminders dressed up with behavioral science terms?

The promise of nudges lies in their ability to reshape our choices in subtle yet powerful ways. They’re not easy to design and implement. They require a deep understanding of human behavior, and a willingness and ability to change policies and choice contexts. But that’s also what holds the potential to make them so valuable.

Patrick Gallagher, Ph.D., uses behavioral science to improve organizations’ practices, cultures, and products.

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Nudge Theory Is Making Inroads in Health Care, With Mixed Results

Social cues designed to nudge patients toward healthier choices don’t always work. scientists want to know why..

Visual: Klaus Vedfelt/DigitalVision via Getty Images

I n the 2008 book “Nudge: Improving Decisions About Health, Wealth, and Happiness,” behavioral economists Richard Thaler and Cass Sunstein popularized the idea that subtle social cues can effectively guide people’s decision making without restricting their choices or imposing financial incentives. That concept, inspired by decades of behavioral science research, has come to be known as “nudge theory.” The social cues, or nudges, are often surprisingly simple: offering smaller plates at a buffet to regulate portion sizes; sending a patient a text message reminder to discuss cholesterol medication at an upcoming medical checkup; providing utility customers with weekly report cards that showed how their energy use stacks up against other households in the neighborhood.

Governor Gavin Newsom juggles numbered balls during the drawing for California's "Vax for the Win" vaccine incentive program.

The ease and relatively low cost of these interventions, and the seemingly outsize benefits they confer, have made them popular with policymakers. In the years following the publication of Thaler and Sunstein’s book, the U.K., U.S., Australia, Germany, The Netherlands, and Singapore governments all established behavioral insights teams — nudging people to pay taxes on time, limit energy use, reduce waste, and adopt other behaviors thought to benefit the public good. Two nudge units in the U.S. government tested 349 nudges in a span of four years.

Although the theory has its critics — detractors argue that nudges can be paternalistic , invasive, ideological, and coercive in ways that erode public trust — many clinicians and public health experts have come to embrace the idea . Some hospitals have created dedicated nudge units to guide clinicians’ and patients’ decision-making — be it encouraging physicians to scale back on unnecessary prescriptions or reminding people to get a flu shot and regularly take medications.

“The return on investment is really large,” said David Tannenbaum, an associate professor at the University of Utah, who studies how people make decisions. “They’re not going to totally fix the problem, but they’re going to be able to move the needle a decent amount.”

“Some of these interventions work, some don’t, and we don’t have a clear understanding of why.”

For Tannenbaum and other experts who seek to use nudge theory to improve health outcomes, the important question is not whether nudges are ideologically good or bad — it’s simply whether they work, and to what extent?

In part because of the speed with which these behavioral science concepts were implemented in real-world experiments, however, those questions have been difficult to answer. Though numerous teams have reported success nudging patients and doctors toward better health decisions, one recent analysis suggests that nudges’ true benefits may be significantly smaller than the academic literature portrays them to be. And some experts argue that the growing interest in nudges is misplaced — that it distracts from larger systemic problems that limit individuals’ ability to make healthy choices even if they wanted to.

Despite a growing data trail to work with, nudge theory’s practitioners are still struggling to tease out patterns that can help them reliably predict when nudges will succeed and fail in real world settings. According to Tannenbaum, it’s important not to overlook the value of nudges, however small. But a pressing mystery in this popular but polarizing field of science, he added, is that “some of these interventions work, some don’t, and we don’t have a clear understanding of why.”

I f people always made perfectly rational choices, there might be no need for nudges: Fines, tax breaks, and strict laws might suffice to encourage people to make healthy choices and avoid unhealthy ones. But a core tenet of behavioral science is that humans don’t always act rationally — that people naturally fear losing what they have more than they value acquiring what they don’t; that they tend toward choices that require the least cognitive effort; that they are driven, more often than they care to admit, by social cues.

To some extent, we all desire to fit in, said psychologist Craig Fox of the Anderson School of Management at the University of California, Los Angeles. “Oftentimes people, doctors included, will respond more strongly to social feedback, which is costless, than they will to the financial incentive of a bribe.”

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Nudge theory posits that when people think fast or go with their gut, they quickly — seemingly unconsciously — absorb cues from their surroundings and use them as decision-making aids to supplement their slower, conscious choices. Nudges leverage those cues, in ways as subtle as changing the order in which choices are presented on a form or including a note that most people choose a certain option, to coax the reader to do the same. A reminder on a pack of cigarettes that smoking causes lung cancer and harms bystanders could provide the added friction that causes someone to pause before reaching for a cigarette.

Although some of the science underlying nudge theory is viewed as unsettled , nudges have nevertheless gained traction among researchers and clinicians who see them as potentially valuable public health tools. They likely won’t stop a person from skipping an appointment or adding a side of fries to an order, but they make the healthier alternatives slightly easier to choose. “You kind of set people along the garden path towards the desired behavior,” Fox said, “for instance, by making it the default or removing obstacles, making it really easy and simple to behave in the way you’d like.”

Fox and a collaborator, Yale School of Medicine’s Daniella Meeker, were among the earliest researchers to implement nudges in a clinical setting. In a study conducted in 2012 , they and several colleagues had physicians from five Los Angeles-area primary care clinics sign a letter stating that they would avoid overprescribing antibiotics, to help limit drug-resistant infections. The researchers then displayed poster-sized copies of the letters in some physicians’ exam rooms. At the start of the experiment, physicians in both groups prescribed antibiotics to a little over 40 percent of their patients. After 12 weeks, that rate had fallen to about 33 percent among doctors who saw patients in rooms with the posters, and it had climbed to over 50 percent for doctors who used the poster-free rooms.

“Oftentimes people, doctors included, will respond more strongly to social feedback, which is costless, than they will to the financial incentive of a bribe.”

Years later, in 2016, the Penn Medicine Nudge Unit became the first behavioral design team embedded in a health care system. The unit’s founders had seen government agencies’ apparent success at applying behavioral science in the public policy realm, and they realized “that there’s no reason why we can’t be doing this in the health care system,” said the group’s current director Kit Delgado.

The unit began inviting hospital clinicians to submit proposals that identified problems they felt could be mitigated with nudges. The team evaluated the proposals based on a suite of factors: How much impact was a nudge likely to have on the problem? How feasible would it be to implement? Would the nudge promote health equity? If a proposal seemed promising, the nudge unit worked with clinicians and other hospital staff to implement it. Over the past several years, the team has completed 46 projects and has four more in the works, Delgado said.

Some of those projects have successfully narrowed socioeconomic disparities in the prescription of cholesterol-lowering drugs known as statins, improved the number of statin prescriptions, and curbed prescriptions of opioids. Almost 90 percent of the nudges the team has implemented have shown a statistically significant benefit, according to Delgado.

Delgado said the unit’s most effective nudges are often those that engage clinicians as well as patients, such as a recent effort to boost the number of high-risk patients who get statins . For that project, the researchers tried two nudges at once. The first nudge, aimed at high-risk patients, was a pair of text messages delivered in the run up to a primary care appointment: A text sent four days before the appointment told patients that “at Penn Medicine, it is standard of care to prescribe a statin to patients like you,” and a follow-up message — sent 15 minutes before the appointment — reminded them to speak with their doctor about statins.

The second nudge was aimed at the clinicians: The team modified the hospital-wide digital record keeping system — known as the electronic health record, or EHR — so that when primary care doctors opened the records of a statin-eligible patient, they saw a notice about their statin prescription rates and the drug’s benefits to patients. In a 2022 publication, the team reported that patient nudges boosted prescription rates by 0.9 percentage points, physician nudges boosted rates by 5.5 percentage points, and that both nudges together improved rates by more than 7 percentage points.

“Some of our most successful interventions have been clinician-focused and have been related to making the right thing to do, sort of the easy or default thing. When we do that, it’s often through the electronic health record,” Delgado said. By modifying the system where choices are being made, “you don’t have to go out and prompt people to do things the right way or motivate them,” he added. “It’s just going to happen because you’ve modified the environment.”

A cademic journals abound with nudge success stories. But one recent study suggests that nudges may not be as effective as that body of literature portrays them to be. In a 2020 working paper, a team from the University of California, Berkeley, compared results from about two dozen academic studies with data from 126 real-world trials implemented by two major U.S. government nudge units — the U.S. National Science and Technology Council’s Social and Behavioral Sciences Team at the federal level and another that worked across U.S. cities.

In the academic studies, nudges boosted the number of people who opted for the preferred behavior, on average, by 8.7 percentage points relative to control groups who did not receive a nudge. This meant more people, say, picking healthier foods at a buffet, using water treatment methods to reduce diarrheal diseases, or making eco-friendly lifestyle choices. In trials conducted by the governmental nudge units, however, the average effect of a nudge was only 1.4 percentage points.

The Berkeley team concluded that the gap could largely be explained by publication bias: Whereas academic researchers face pressure to publish successful outcomes — and bury the failures — the government studies documented their outcomes irrespective of the results. University of Cambridge psychologist Magda Osman is among several experts who worry that publication bias in academic research has created “a distorted picture of the success of behavioral change interventions.”

Outside the confines of academia, it can be difficult to predict how even a tried and tested nudge will fare. That’s a lesson University of Pennsylvania economist Harsha Thirumurthy learned when he teamed up with researchers in South Africa in 2020 to launch Indlela, an initiative to apply behavioral science to pressing public health problems in low- and middle-income countries.

One of Thirumurthy’s early projects with Indlela aimed to promote retention in HIV care by improving the text message reminders patients receive for follow-up appointments. Thirumurthy and his colleagues tweaked the language of some of the messages to try to make them more motivating: Some of the new messages urged recipients not to miss out on prescriptions that were waiting at the clinic; others advised patients that taking medicine protected not just their own health but that of their family members.

“We randomized the patients before their appointment to get these different types of messages, hoping that one of the messages might increase the likelihood that the patient actually showed up on time for their appointment,” Thirumurthy said. Indeed, previous studies in the U.S. and Israel had found that tweaking the wording of a text message could reduce the rates of missed appointments. But, in South Africa, Thirumurthy found that the messaging made no difference.

“We hypothesized that it didn’t work in part because the barriers facing patients were different than the ones that the messages were tackling,” Thirumurthy said. If a person simply couldn’t afford transportation to the clinic, he explained, even the most convincingly worded text message wasn’t going to solve that problem.

To Thirumurthy, the outcome revealed how important it is that nudges be “aligned with what is actually going on in the patient’s mind or in the patient’s life.” Strategies that succeed in one country might fail in another, he explained, simply because of differences in people’s individual circumstances or cultural norms.

T he factors that can cause a nudge to work in one setting but fail in another aren’t always obvious or easy to disentangle. Yet experts say that understanding why nudges fail will be important for improving future interventions.

Some nudges simply fail to produce an effect, for instance, such as the nutrition labels that were introduced at U.S. fast-food restaurants but made no difference to people’s eating habits, or the information labels at a Dutch online grocery store that did little to change people’s food shopping behaviors. In a 2020 analysis , Cambridge University’s Osman helped introduce a taxonomy of the many different ways that nudges fail. In addition to listing examples of several failed nudges, Osman and her colleagues highlighted nudges that work as intended but trigger negative side effects, or that succeed only temporarily, before their effects are later offset by behavior changes.

“We hypothesized that it didn’t work in part because the barriers facing patients were different than the ones that the messages were tackling.”

There’s some evidence that partisan leanings can influence a nudge’s fate. A 2017 paper by a group including UCLA’s Fox and the University of Utah’s Tannenbaum found that people often conflated their feelings about a nudge with their feeling about the policy it promoted. “If I’m a Republican or conservative-leaning individual and I see an example presented of defaulting people into supporting food stamps, I don’t like it,” Fox said.

In a field where successes often capture the public imagination, Osman and others argue that an open discourse around failure is healthy and necessary. “If we’re going to do something useful, we need to understand why they don’t work,” she said. “But we have to be honest about the fact that they don’t.”

O ne high-profile case study of a public health nudge gone awry has been unfolding for the better part of a decade in the Netherlands. In late 2016, policymakers there voted to tweak the way people volunteered to donate their organs after death. Decades of evidence from across the world suggested that making organ donor enrollment the default choice — and requiring people to opt-out if they chose not to donate — resulted in higher numbers of potential donors. Lawmakers and public health experts saw it as a potentially effective tactic to address a growing donor shortage: Worldwide, the number of people waiting to receive suitable donor organs grew nearly sixfold over the past 30 years.

The Dutch policy was in many ways a textbook application of behavioral science. But it was also controversial and seen by some as an invasion of personal autonomy. After the policy was approved in 2016, it drew the public’s ire and a groundswell of opposition. The policy change, enacted in 2020, led to about 1 million additional registered donors in the Netherlands, although twice as many explicitly opted out of being listed on the donor registry.

“If we’re going to do something useful, we need to understand why they don’t work. But we have to be honest about the fact that they don’t.”

The ideological battles notwithstanding, it’s not clear that opt-out donor policies have had much impact on national organ donor gaps. In Chile, for instance, some evidence suggests the policy might have backfired, resulting in fewer registered donors on the rolls. A 2019 study of 35 countries found that although the number of living donors is higher in opt-in countries, that didn’t equate to more transplants.

“The actual rates of organ donations hasn’t changed,” said Osman. “It looks like the nudge kind of worked, it worked minimally but not meaningfully.” One possible explanation, Osman and her co-authors suggest in a 2018 study , is that the lines between opt-in and opt-out policies are often blurry in practice. For instance, many countries honor a family’s choice to refuse donation of a loved one’s organs, even if the person was defaulted into a donor registry.

Osman said another underlying issue might be that some countries don’t have enough infrastructure to perform organ retrieval and transplant surgeries in a timely way — regardless of how many people fill the donor rolls.

That assessment speaks to a broader critique that Nick Chater, a behavioral science researcher at Warwick Business School in Coventry, U.K., has levelled against nudge theory. He argues that nudges emphasize individual choices in a way that deflects attention and support away from system-level policies that arguably have more bearing on real-world outcomes. Chater served on the advisory board to the U.K. government’s Behavioral Insights team, one of the world’s first nudge units, in its early years. He recalls that when he joined the team, the potential to solve large public problems using psychological approaches seemed really attractive. But over time, he increasingly felt that “the impacts we could make were often very minimal,” and he argued in a 2022 article that nudges have had a “disappointingly modest” effect.

Encouraging people to use smaller plates to reduce portion sizes or displaying signs about the importance of nutrition makes little to no difference to people’s health, Chater said, because they’re failing to tackle the systemic problem, “which is that we’ve created a food environment in many parts of the world which is just really hostile to healthy eating.” He added, “Trying to help people individually navigate that environment better is not a crazy thing to do, but you’re sort of doing it the hard way.”

As Chater sees it, the challenge of making healthy choices in a world that doesn’t support them is a widespread concern that will make it difficult, if not impossible, for nudges to solve persistent problems in public health and other domains.

“There will always be powerful forces who are benefiting from the status quo,” he said. “They’ll always be saying ‘well, we need to leave it up to the individual but we’ll just try and nudge them in the right direction. But really the forces against people are so great that there’s no real chance that’s going to work.”

UPDATE: A caption in this piece incorrectly described the U.K. as requiring people to opt in for organ donation. It has an opt-out system for adults, meaning donation is the default choice, but requires family consent for those under 18.

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Jyoti Madhusoodanan is a senior contributor to Undark and a science writer based in Portland, Oregon.

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Book Review: ‘Swallow the Ghost’ a promising but uneven exploration of memory in internet age

This cover image released by Mulholland shows “Swallow the Ghost” by Eugenie Montague. (Mulholland via AP)

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In many ways, Eugenie Montague’s “Swallow the Ghost” feels like three separate novels. That’s what makes her debut novel so imaginative — and also so frustrating.

The story’s center is Jane Murphy, who works at a New York social media startup on an internet novel that’s become a viral hit through social media posts where elaborate backstories about its characters are formed.

But Murphy’s story and a tragic event are told through three interlocking sections. The first focuses on Jane. The second focuses on Jesse, a former journalist working as an investigator for a law firm. The third focuses on Jeremy, the pretentious, Kafka-quoting novelist and sometimes boyfriend of Jane’s.

The writing style and genre shifts with each section, but Montague’s novel at its heart explores memory in the digital era. It’s a promising concept but feels uneven.

Montague’s novel is filled with beautiful prose that’s hard to forget, and poses intriguing questions about how someone is remembered. The interactions between Jesse and his mother, who he cares for and who has dementia, are some of the most simply heartbreaking moments in the novel.

But there are other portions of the novel that meander, especially the final section of the book that is framed as a transcript of a conversation with Jeremy at a bookstore event. The conversation reveals more about Jane and also about the questions the novel poses, but it also slows down the momentum of the prior section focused on Jesse and the mystery he was investigating.

Though the approach falls short at times, it’s an ambitious one that leaves readers much to think about and introduces Montague as an inventive new voice.

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Nudge: Improving Decisions About Health, Wealth, and Happiness Paperback – February 24, 2009

Print length 312 pages
Language English
Publisher Penguin Books
Publication date February 24, 2009
Dimensions 5.4 x 0.8 x 8.44 inches
ISBN-10 9780143115267
ISBN-13 978-0143115267
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"Flies" in urinals improve, well, aim. When Amsterdam's Schiphol Airport was faced with the not uncommon issue of dirty urinals, they chose a unique solution: by painting "flies" in the (center of) commodes, men obligingly aimed at the insects, reducing spillage by 80 percent.
Credit card minimum payments affect repayment schedules. Among those who only partially pay off credit card balances each month, the repayment level is correlated with the card's minimum payment — in other words, the lower the minimum payment, the longer it takes a consumer to pay off the card balance.
Automatic savings programs increase savings rate. All over the country, companies are adopting the Save More Tomorrow program: firms offer employees who are not saving very much the option of joining a program in which their saving rates are automatically increased whenever they get a raise. This plan has more than tripled saving rates in some firms, and is now offered by thousands of employers.
"Defaults" can improve rates of organ donation. In the United States, about one–third of citizens have signed organ donor cards. Compare this to Austria, where 99 percent of people are potential organ donors. One obvious difference? Americans must explicitly consent to become organ donors (by signing forms, for example) while Austrians must opt out if they do not want to be organ donors.

Product details

ASIN ‏ : ‎ 014311526X
Publisher ‏ : ‎ Penguin Books; Revised & Expanded edition (February 24, 2009)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 312 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 9780143115267
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0143115267
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 10.4 ounces
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.4 x 0.8 x 8.44 inches
#25 in Sociology of Social Theory
#53 in Business Decision Making
#103 in Decision-Making & Problem Solving

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Richard h. thaler.

Cass R. Sunstein

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Customers find the main thesis interesting and refreshing. They also praise the writing quality as extremely well written, simple, and engaging. Opinions are mixed on the intellectual quality, with some finding the idea of libertarian paternalism interesting, while others say it's preachy at times and poorly researched.

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Customers find the main thesis interesting and refreshing. They say the book is useful for public policy, and it offers a reality-based approach to enhancing the welfare of people. Readers also appreciate the sound view of human nature, solid research, and good advice. They also say the work provides an overview of choice architecture from a policy planning perspective, and some practical applications.

"This is one of the best books on Public Policy ...." Read more

"...Their defense is a strong one but there is an implicit admission that said defense relies on the duality of paternalism and libertarianism...." Read more

"...In their place, it offers a reality-based approach to enhancing the welfare of individuals and society. It gets my highest recommendation." Read more

"...This work provides an overview of choice architecture from a policy planning perspective but also offers practical thoughts and tips that are..." Read more

Customers find the book extremely well written, with clear explanations and numerous examples. They also say it's easily accessible and useful for arranging one's everyday life.

"...The book is well written and the authors are methodical in both laying out their case and pointing out its potential flaws...." Read more

"...If you are responsible for designing a stairwell, you can make it easy to access , aesthetically pleasing, with natural light will encourage people..." Read more

"...I thought a lot of this was useful for simply arranging one’s everyday life, putting reminders out to help them make quick decisions and remembering..." Read more

"...supposed to be targeted towards the layman, the writing is oftentimes confused about its audience . Additionally, I didn't care for the writing style...." Read more

Customers find the book to be engaging and mention that it's written in a humorous style.

"...and the authors provide plenty of relevant examples, and a good amount of humour - makes for a very easy and enjoyable read...." Read more

"Not too heavy, sprinkled with some humor . In my opinion they miss the mark, here and there, by not fulling thinking through an idea,..." Read more

"...and examples, backed up by excellent research, all with a liberal dose of humor . Don't we all wish Dr. Thales had been OUR teacher?" Read more

"This is a really great book, written in an engaging style . It describes complex concepts simply, and with humour...." Read more

Customers are mixed about the intellectual quality of the book. Some like the idea of libertarian paternalism, while others say it's preachy at times, full of self-contradiction, and poorly researched policy opinions around doctor malpractice law.

"...chapter in there that is just a weird vehicle for some poorly researched policy opinions around doctor malpractice law!..." Read more

"I am late to the book. I liked the idea of libertarian paternalism . Most of the ideas were helpful in government sphere...." Read more

"...Is a little preachy at times , which is really the only reason it didn't get five stars. Did have information I can and will use in it." Read more

"Trite, preachy and boring" Read more

Customers have mixed opinions about the readability of the book. Some find it interesting, while others say it's not a pleasure to read past 1/3 of the way.

"...Both are extremely similar, but Nudge is more to the point and more organized. "Thinking Fast and Slow" was still brilliant though...." Read more

"...attention-span, but despite the interesting premise, reading this book was like eating oatmeal ...." Read more

" Nudge is interesting to read from both a consumer and a business perspective...." Read more

"...And it is helpful in thinking about nudges you might set up in your work or daily life. Excellent read!" Read more

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7 New Books We Recommend This Week

Suggested reading from critics and editors at The New York Times.

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“Glitter and doom.” That phrase appears in the subtitle of one of the books we recommend this week (Guy Trebay’s memoir of 1970s New York, “Do Something”), but it also serves nicely as a catchall theme for the list as a whole, which sparkles darkly: a witty horror novel, an exciting debut story collection probing the scarier side of the human psyche, a novel about a man whose unresolved daddy issues leave him at loose ends. In nonfiction, we recommend a group biography of the women who challenged social strictures in 18th-century England (that one’s more glitter than doom), a serious study of the people who helped prop up Hitler and his genocidal reign (more doom than glitter) and a true-crime history about a high-society jewel thief. Happy reading. — Gregory Cowles

SOMEONE LIKE US Dinaw Mengestu

Mengestu’s brilliantly slippery and destabilized fourth novel centers on Mamush, a journalist in Paris who is supposed to spend Christmas with his wife and young son in the Virginia suburb where his Ethiopian immigrant mother lives; instead, he ends up in Chicago investigating the criminal record of the man he assumes is his father.

“Mamush might be hapless, but this book is not; it’s meticulously constructed and its genius doesn’t falter even slightly under scrutiny. … Ought to cement Mengestu’s reputation as a major literary force.”

From Rebecca Makkai’s review

Knopf | $28

BEAUTIFUL DAYS: Stories Zach Williams

The stories in this striking debut collection tend toward the grimly surreal, with characters facing spiritual crises, random violence and meaningless work. Two or three of the stories are so good that they announce a genuine young talent, one who deftly palpates the dark areas of human psyches.

“His sentences are smooth, clean and approachable. He pushes you slowly off into the night, then down long embankments.”

From Dwight Garner’s review

Doubleday | $28

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IMAGES

Book Review of Nudge by Richard Thaler
Nudge Book Summary by Richard H. Thaler and Cass R. Sunstein
Book review: 'Nudge'
(PDF) Review of Nudge: The Final Edition Paperback
Nudge Summary, Review and Quotes
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COMMENTS

Book Review
100 Best Books of the 21st Century: As voted on by 503 novelists, nonfiction writers, poets, critics and other book lovers — with a little help from the staff of The New York Times Book Review. ...
NUDGE
A fully revised version of the 2008 bestseller about making decisions. Thaler and Sunstein advocate what they call "libertarian paternalism," by which consumers and citizens can be "nudged" to make decisions of their own will that guide them and society toward a more perfect union. For instance, they write, "nudges"—usually ...
Nudge: Improving Decisions About Health, Wealth, and Happiness
Loy Machedo's Book Review - Nudge by Richard H. Thaler and Cass R. Sunstein I love reading book. Books on Thought-Provoking, Critical-Thinking, Cognitive Science, Business, Biographies, Self-Improvement and so on. But the most important characteristic I admire and love about a book, is its ability to make something simple and understandable.
PDF Richard H. Thaler, Cass R. Sunstein, Nudge: Improving decisions about
BOOK REVIEW Richard H. Thaler, Cass R. Sunstein, Nudge: Improving decisions about health, wealth, and happiness Yale University Press, New Haven, CT, 2008, 293 pp, $26.00 Thomas C. Leonard Springer Science+Business Media, LLC 2008 Thaler and Sunstein have written an important book. Though costumed in the guise
Nudge: Summary & Review + PDF (Richard Thaler)
Review. Nudge is 30% psychology and 70% government policy. I enjoyed the psychology part albeit there is some valid criticism to what's included as a "nudge" and the validity of some studies. And I agree with several of the pro-social government policies it encourages. Check the: Best books on psychology; or get the book on Amazon
Book Summary
Nudge: An Overview. The book Nudge by Richard Thaler and Cass Sunstein was first published in 2008, and popularized the concept of using behavioral sciences in public policy and managerial practices. This Final Edition includes additional materials, updated examples, and recommendations for policy-makers to design systems that can generate even ...
Book Review-Nudge: Improving Decisions about Health, Wealth, and
It's an artful thing to create the right choices so that people are nudged gently into the behaviors that are best for them. That's what Nudge: Improving Decisions about Health, Wealth, and Happiness is all about - helping people make the best choices for themselves. With the idea of libertarian paternalism, choice architects help to.
Book Review: Nudge: Improving Decisions about Health, Wealth, and Happiness
The field of behavioral economics has emerged in recent years as a framework for understanding the choices we make in "actual economic life."1 This book examines some of the principles used in behavioral economics to understand and influence behaviors. As the title implies, Nudge is about getting people to act in their own best interests.
Book Review: 'Nudge'
Book Review: 'Nudge'. Nudge Improving Decisions About Health, Wealth, and Happiness By Richard H. Thaler and Cass R. Sunstein 293 pages. $26. Yale University Press. Yes, there is such a thing as ...
Book Review: Nudge: Improving Decisions About Health, Wealth, and
Book Review: Nudge: Improving Decisions About Health, Wealth, and Happiness by Richard H. Thaler and Cass R. Sunstein February 25, 2015 May 21, 2021 by Scott Crabtree Nudge is a book for people who want to help -but not force- others to make better decisions.
Nudge
"Nudge: Improving Decisions About Health, Wealth, and Happiness," 2008, 2017, was written by Richard H. Thaler, a Nobel Prize laureate in economics, and Cass R. Sunstein, also distinguished as a Holberg Prize winner. Central to the book's premise is the introduction of the "nudge" concept - a subtle yet influential force capable of inciting individuals to make favorable choices and take ...
Book Review: Nudge
As promised, the following is my review of Nudge: Improving Decisions About Health, Wealth, and Happiness, by Richard H. Thaler and Cass R. Sunstein. This isn't an especially timely post (the book originally was published in 2008, and I read the "Revised and Expanded Edition" from 2009), but, for its popularity and apparent influence, I…
Nudge (book)
Nudge: Improving Decisions about Health, Wealth, and Happiness is a book written by University of Chicago economist and Nobel Laureate [1] Richard H. Thaler and Harvard Law School Professor Cass R. Sunstein, first published in 2008.In 2021, a revised edition was released, subtitled The Final Edition.. The book draws on research in psychology and behavioral economics to defend libertarian ...
Nudge Summary and Key Lessons
"Nudge: Improving Decisions About Health, Wealth, and Happiness" is a book by economist Richard H. Thaler and legal scholar Cass R. Sunstein, published in 2008.. Quick Summary: The book popularized the concept of "nudge theory," which suggests that positive reinforcement and indirect suggestions can significantly influence people's behavior and decision-making processes in a way that ...
Amazon.com: Customer reviews: Nudge: Improving Decisions About Health
Nudge goes beyond suggesting how we can make better choices to improve our health, wealth, and happiness. It examines the role of public policy in helping us help ourselves. Not only did Nudge convey important lessons, it did so in a fascinating and entertaining way. I had a hard time putting the book down. Nudge is a brilliant book.
Amazon.com: Customer reviews: Nudge: Improving Decisions About Health
This is the concept behind the book Nudge. I would recommend Nudge to anyone who is trying to promote better health to individuals, communities or within organizations. Richard Thaler is a Professor at The University of Chicago, Booth School of Business. His co-author, Cass Sunstein is a Law Professor at the University of Chicago.
Richard Thaler Updates His Book Nudge For Its Final Edition : The ...
His book, with coauthor Cass Sunstein, Nudge: Improving Decisions about Health, Wealth, and Happiness has sold millions of copies worldwide and influenced governments and companies alike.
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Nudge: Improving Decisions About Health, Wealth, and Happiness
For that we should all applaud loudly."―Benjamin M. Friedman, New York Times Book Review "By a 'nudge,' Thaler and Sunstein mean a policy intervention into choice architecture that is easy and inexpensive to avoid and that alters people's behavior in a predictable way without forbidding any options or significantly changing an individual's ...
Nudge: Improving Decisions About Health, Wealth and Happiness
Coming soon: Nudge: The Final Edition From Cass R. Sunstein and Richard H. Thaler, winner of the 2017 Nobel Prize in Economics, Nudge is the book that changed the way we think about decision-making. Nudge is about choices - how we make them and how we can make better ones. Every day we make decisions: about the things that we buy or the meals we eat; about the investments we make or our ...
Nudge: Improving Decisions about Health, Wealth, and Happiness
Now available: Nudge: The Final Edition The original edition of the multimillion-copy New York Times bestseller by the winner of the Nobel Prize in Economics, Richard H. Thaler, and Cass R. Sunstein: a revelatory look at how we make decisions—for fans of Malcolm Gladwell's Blink, Charles Duhigg's The Power of Habit, James Clear's Atomic Habits, and Daniel Kahneman's Thinking, Fast ...
Nudge : Improving Decisions About Health, Wealth, and Happiness
Now available: Nudge: The Final EditionThe original edition of the multimillion-copy New York Times bestseller by the winner of the Nobel Prize in Economics, Richard H. Thaler, and Cass R. Sunstein: a revelatory look at how we make decisions—for fans of Malcolm Gladwell's Blink, Charles Duhigg's The Power of Habit, James Clear's Atomic Habits, and Daniel Kahneman's Thinking, Fast and ...
Are You Getting Nudged? Are You Sure?
Cass Sunstein and Richard Thaler used the term in their book Nudge: Improving Decisions About Health, Wealth, and Happiness, to describe their method of applying behavioral science to shape ...
Can Nudge Theory Improve Public Health?
I n the 2008 book "Nudge: Improving Decisions About Health, Wealth, and Happiness," behavioral economists Richard Thaler and Cass Sunstein popularized the idea that subtle social cues can effectively guide people's decision making without restricting their choices or imposing financial incentives. That concept, inspired by decades of behavioral science research, has come to be known as ...
Book Review: 'If Only,' by Vigdis Hjorth
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Book Review: In 'The Slow Road North,' a New York writer finds solace in a Northern Irish town. But there are other portions of the novel that meander, especially the final section of the book that is framed as a transcript of a conversation with Jeremy at a bookstore event. The conversation reveals more about Jane and also about the ...
Nudge: Improving Decisions About Health, Wealth, and Happiness
Now available: Nudge: The Final Edition The original edition of the multimillion-copy New York Times bestseller by the winner of the Nobel Prize in Economics, Richard H. Thaler, and Cass R. Sunstein: a revelatory look at how we make decisions—for fans of Malcolm Gladwell's Blink, Charles Duhigg ' s The Power of Habit, James Clear ' s Atomic Habits, and Daniel Kahneman ' s Thinking ...
'A Day in September' Review: The Future Antietam Made
BEST OF Books & Arts in Review. The Best Books of July. Summer Books. Best in Business. The 10 Best Books of 2023. This copy is for your personal, non-commercial use only. Distribution and use of ...
Opinion
Supreme Court Justice Neil M. Gorsuch's new book, which slays a cliché, should disturb prudent citizens. His readers will never again say ignorance of the law is no excuse for breaking it.
7 New Books We Recommend This Week
100 Best Books of the 21st Century: As voted on by 503 novelists, nonfiction writers, poets, critics and other book lovers — with a little help from the staff of The New York Times Book Review ...

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Nudge: Summary, Review & Criticism

Nudge Quotes

#1. What’s A Nudge

Choice Architecture

#2. The Rationale for “Nudging”: Libertarian Paternalism

#3. Why We Make the Wrong Choices

#4. Temptation & Arousal

#5. How to Nudge

Companies Already Use Nudging for Manipulation

More Applications of Libertarian Paternalism

The Morality of Nudging: It’s OK As Long As It’s Good For The Nudged

About The Author

Lucio Buffalmano

I’m OK – You’re OK: Summary & Review

Straight Talk, No Chaser: Summary & Review

Snakes in Suits: Summary & Review

Book Review-Nudge: Improving Decisions about Health, Wealth, and Happiness

Choice Architects

Libertarian Paternalism

The Paradox of Choice

Forced Choice

The Power of Default

Controlled by Experts

Nudging and Shoving

Mistakes in Choosing

Unintended Consequences

Social Nudges

Checklist for the Choice Architect

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Book Review: Nudge: Improving Decisions About Health, Wealth, and Happiness by Richard H. Thaler and Cass R. Sunstein

Nudge - Book Review

The book covers the following topics:

NUDGE Tools

Integrating Knowledge into the NUDGE Framework

NUDGE - Fundamental Concepts and Principles

Incentivizing Behaviors

Slippery Slope

Problem with Choice Architects

The Right to Make Mistakes

Resistance to Bias

Neutrality of Concern

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Nudge Summary and Key Lessons | Richard H. Thaler

Nudge Full Summary

Libertarian Paternalism

Automatic vs. Reflective Systems

Real-world Applications

Ethical Considerations

Key Lessons

Why it Matters ?

2. Importance of Simplifying Choices

3. Transparency and Ethical Nudging

Final Thoughts

The Indicator from Planet Money

Nudge Vs Shove: A Conversation With Richard Thaler

Nudge: Improving Decisions about Health, Wealth and Happiness

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Nudge: Improving Decisions About Health, Wealth and Happiness Paperback – 5 Mar. 2009

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Cass R. Sunstein