Cass Sunstein and Richard Thaler, Nudge
In 2008 Harvard Law School professor Cass Sunstein and economist Richard Thaler published Nudge.
The book introduces “nudge theory”, a system for influencing decision making without restricting options.
In order to nudge people towards making certain decisions, Thaler & Sunstein advocate for “choice architecture”. Choice Architecture is the practice of influencing choices by organising the context in which they are made.
Here’s seven tools in the choice architecture toolbox:
Power of defaults: Research shows that people are more likely to stick to the default choice. For example, in countries where the default is for people to not be organ donors only 15% of people opt in. When the default is for people to be organ donors only 10% of people opt out.
Status quo bias: People have a strong tendency to maintain the current state of affairs. For example, many drivers stick with their current car insurers as they are already familiar with the service despite other providers offering better products and/or prices.
Framing: The same choice framed in different ways results in different decisions. For example, “If you have the operation you have a 90% chance of surviving 5 years” results in more people opting for procedures than when the framing is, “You have a 10% chance of passing away within 5 years.”
Anchoring and adjustment: When asked to make an estimate, we start with a number we know and adjust up or down from there. For example, someone from Chicago may guess the population of Milwaukee by starting with that of Chicago (~3m) and adjusting down to, say 1m. Someone from Green Bay may adjust up from their population (100k) to, say, 300k.
Yeah, whatever heuristic: In low-stakes decision making, many people will choose whatever option is presented to them. For example, a TV viewer who starts the evening watching NBC is likely to stay there despite the switching cost being only one button click.
Conformity: In a group context, our decisions are influenced by those that others make. For example, in a meeting if the majority of people express a certain opinion, the remaining attendees have an increased likelihood of following suit.
Mere-measurement effect: People asked what they intend to do become more likely to act in accordance with their answers. For example, if people are asked whether they intend to eat certain foods, to diet, or to exercise, their answers to the questions will affect their behavior.
The book covers many more aspects of Nudge Theory, including dynamic inconsistencies, collective conservatism, pluralistic ignorance, the hot/cold empathy gap and overconfidence.
You can pick up your copy here.
Highly recommended.