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Nudge Vs Shove: A Conversation With Richard Thaler

Greg Rosalsky, photographed for NPR, 2 August 2022, in New York, NY. Photo by Mamadi Doumbouya for NPR.

Greg Rosalsky

Stacey Vanek Smith

(Photo by Scott Olson/Getty Images)

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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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

CURRENT EVENTS & SOCIAL ISSUES | PSYCHOLOGY | BUSINESS | U.S. GOVERNMENT | PUBLIC POLICY | LEADERSHIP, MANAGEMENT & COMMUNICATION | ECONOMICS | GENERAL CURRENT EVENTS & SOCIAL ISSUES

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MISBEHAVING

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by Richard H. Thaler

BEYOND THE GENDER BINARY

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

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by Gaby Melian

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by Leo Baker ; illustrated by Ashley Lukashevsky

BLACK LOVE LETTERS

BLACK LOVE LETTERS

edited by Cole Brown & Natalie Johnson ; illustrated by Natalie Johnson ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 24, 2023

A wide-ranging collection of testaments to what moves the heart.

Black Americans declare their love.

This anthology brings together dozens of love letters by prominent Black Americans. The entries, interspersed with illustrations, address an eclectic mix of topics arranged under five categories: Care, Awe, Loss, Ambivalence, and Transformation. In their introduction, editors Brown and Johnson note the book’s inspiration in the witnessing of violence directed at Black America. Reckonings with outrage and grief, they explain, remain an urgent task and a precondition of creating and sustaining loving bonds. The editors seek to create “a site for our people to come together on the deepest, strongest emotion we share” and thus open “the possibility for shared deliverance” and “carve out a space for healing, together.” This aim is powerfully realized in many of the letters, which offer often poignant portrayals of where redemptive love has and might yet be found. Among the most memorable are Joy Reid’s “A Love Letter to My Hair,” a sensitive articulation of a hard-won sense of self-love; Morgan Jerkins’ “Dear Egypt,” an exploration of a lifelong passion for an ancient world; and VJ Jenkins’ “Pops and Dad,” an affirmation that it “is beautiful to be Black, to be a man, and to be gay.” Tracey Michae’l Lewis-Giggetts’ “Home: A Reckoning” is particularly thoughtful and incisive in its examination of a profound attachment, “in the best and worst ways,” to Louisville, Kentucky. Most of the pieces pair personal recollections with incisive cultural commentary. The cumulative effect of these letters is to set forth a panorama of opportunities for maintaining the ties that matter most, especially in the face of a cultural milieu that continues to produce virulent forms of love’s opposite. Other contributors include Nadia Owusu, Jamila Woods, Ben Crump, Eric Michael Dyson, Kwame Dawes, Jenna Wortham, and Imani Perry.

Pub Date: Oct. 24, 2023

ISBN: 9781638931201

Page Count: 240

Publisher: Get Lifted Books/Zando

Review Posted Online: June 29, 2023

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2023

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29 November 2021

Nudge: the final edition.

© Society of Professional Economists

From the Regulatory Frontlines

Mapping, exploring and interrogating the state-of-the art in regulatory practice

Brief book review – Nudge: The Final Edition

Richard Thaler and Cass Sunstein, 2021, Yale University Press, 384 pages

There will be few regulators who have not heard of the groundbreaking book Nudge: Improving Decisions About Health, Wealth and Happiness , published in 2008 by Professors Richard Thaler (University of Chicago) and Cass Sunstein (Harvard University). The authors have joined forces once more in the updated (and as they promise) final version of their work: Nudge: The Final Edition .

With the new book, they seek to achieve several things:

  • Partially, it repeats the basics of nudging (the use of insights from the behavioural sciences in public policy, including regulatory governance).
  • Partially, it seeks to better explain what Thaler and Sunstein mean with the term libertarian paternalism (which they roughly define as ‘nudging for good’ and ‘make it easy’).
  • Partially, it reflects on how governments around the world have been using insights from the behavioural sciences in public policy since the original 2008 publication, just when the global financial crisis kicked in.
  • Partially, it explores how governments can nudge (or perhaps, can nudge better) in areas such as personal finance, organ donation (they aim to set the record straight about the opt-in/opt-out discussion caused by the original book), and climate change.
  • Partially, it introduces some novel thinking on the abuse or misuse of nudging, and the (unintentional or not) use of sludge : “any aspect of choice architecture consisting of friction that makes it harder for people to obtain an outcome that will make them better off (by their own lights)” (p.153).

In short, the book covers a lot of ground and depending on what you are after it may cover too much (some of it in too much detail, and some of it in too little detail). What I particularly appreciate is that the book touches on what appear to have become the most polemicised issues since the original Nudge was published in 2008. These include debates about whether governments can legitimately use “our biases” to “steer our behaviour”, and the risks of nudging with malicious intentions (by governments and others).

Considering that first issue, in The Final Edition , Thaler and Sunstein make it even clearer than in the original Nudge that, effectively, every form of public policy (including regulation) affects people’s choices. If you are involved in the business of affecting people’s choices (‘choice architecture’) then you might do better if you understand how and why people make the choices they make. Nudging itself is not married to a political philosophy; it is a science-based approach to public policy. Pure and simple. How nudging is used could be a political choice (and Thaler and Sunstein prefer libertarian paternalism).

Considering the second issue, yes, often we see that the principles of nudging are used against us. Think of the typical difficulty of unsubscribing from a contract that only took one click to set up initially—an archetypical example of ‘sludge’. Yet, regulators may also unintentionally use the principles of nudging against those they govern. Unintuitive regulation (because the language used clashes with our in-built biases and heuristics) or sticky compliance processes (because too many forms require the same personal data repeatedly) are but two examples of the sort of ‘sludge’ that regulators may wish to tackle.

All in all, Nudge: The Final Edition is a timely contribution to the ever-growing literature on the use of behavioural sciences in regulatory governance (and public policy more broadly). Whether you are new to the topic or a Nudge-veteran, the book is worth your time.

In these brief book reviews, I discuss classic and contemporary books that make up the canon of regulatory scholarship. I focus on their central guiding idea or core notions and aim to keep the reviews to around 500 words. Unfortunately, this implies I must sacrifice a considerable amount of detail from the books reviewed.

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Published by Jeroen van der Heijden

Professor Jeroen van der Heijden works at the intersection of regulation and governance, with a specific interest in regulatory stewardship and dynamic governance regimes. As Chair in Regulatory Practice at the School of Government, Victoria University of Wellington, he is involved in world-leading research on regulatory practice and contributes to the training of those involved in regulatory issues. His research is organised around key-innovations in regulatory practice (including the use of behavioural incentives in regulation, regulatory intermediaries, and the resilience of regulatory regimes) and critical policy objectives in New Zealand and elsewhere. This allows him to draw lessons from New Zealand and elsewhere to improve New Zealand regulation and its impact on economic and social performance, and to showcase the state-of-the-art in regulatory practice in New Zealand to the rest of the world. Jeroen is an Honorary Professor at the Australian National University (School of Regulation and Global Governance), and previously held positions at the University of Amsterdam (College of Law), Delft University of Technology (Faculty of Technology, Policy and Management), and Wageningen University (Environmental Policy Group). He has published widely on regulation and governance, including five books and over 70 articles in leading academic journals. View all posts by Jeroen van der Heijden

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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: Summary, Review & Criticism

nudge book cover

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).

Also read “ Fooled by Randomness “.

#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.

nudge book cover

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

About The Author

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Lucio Buffalmano

The author holds a master's degree from La Sapienza, department of communication and sociological research, and is a member of the American Psychology Association (APA).

He studies psychology, persuasion, strategies, and anything related to people and power dynamics .

Lucio's approach combines science, first-hand experience & critical analysis. He believes that you can only teach effectively when the three go together .

You can use his condensed life's work to gain status, confidence, and mates by joining Power University .

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Book Summary – Nudge: Improving Decisions About Health, Wealth, and Happiness

Home > Book Summaries > Book Summary - Nudge: Improving Decisions About Health, Wealth, and Happiness

Nudge - Book summary

Libertarian Paternalism

The question is: which direction should you nudge people toward? The authors propose Libertarian Paternalism as the ideal approach. This combines libertarianism (giving the freedom of choice) and paternalism (influencing people to act in ways that make their lives better, as defined by them).

In short, you’re helping people to make the choices they would’ve made if they had perfect information, attention, self-control, and no biases. The golden rule is to offer nudges which are the most likely to help and the least likely to inflict harm. There are 3 important misconceptions to straighten out at this phase:

  • There’s no such thing as a “neutral” design . Everything—from a website to an office layout—has a design that nudges people in some way.
  • More choices may not mean better outcomes since we don’t always choose wisely. At times, we also prefer not to choose, e.g. when we ask for recommendations at a restaurant.
  • Paternalism ≠ coercion . Nudges are about influencing behaviors without harsh laws or prohibitions.

In our full Nudge summary, we’ll elaborate more on:

  • The key arguments for and against Libertarian Paternalism;
  • When nudges are most useful (i.e. when our mental gaps and emotional impulses may be at their worst);  and
  • Various tools for choice architects including: defaults, feedback, decision maps, self-nudges, filters, prices/incentives, smart disclosures, social influences. well-curated options, or even fun.

Removing Sludge

The ultimate goal of nudges is to make it easy for users to make good decisions. Sludge does the opposite, creating friction to make it harder for people to get a better outcome (as defined by them). This could come from red tape or deliberate attempts to discourage people from certain actions (e.g. making it hard for people to unsubsribe). Do check out our full Nudge summary for (i) examples of sludge (including a comparison of the US’ sludgy tax system compared to other countries’), (ii) costs of sludge and (iii) ways to de-sludge.

Applying Nudges in the Real World

Nudges can be used by both government and private institutions, though they’re the most impactful in public policies and regulations.

Thaler and Sunstein used many detailed case studies to illustrate how nudges can be applied to real-world challenges, along with their observations of what works, what doesn’t and what are some of the dilemmas that policy makers must grapple with.

There are way too much details to be included here. So, we’ll just outline some of the applications or examples you can expect in the book or our full 19-page summary.

Thaler and Sunstein discuss how governments can help people to save for retirement, manage debts, and insure themselves intelligently . They also offer some tips for individuals. Specifically:

  • Governments worldwide have had to rethink their retirement schemes as people live longer and have fewer children. The authors (i) explain the US’ and UK’s  solution, (ii) dive into a detailed study of the Swedish system (which offers many insights about human behavior and how nudges can work or backfire), and (iii) share their recommendations for the Swedish system and for retirement plans in general.
  • With easily-available credit, people can get laden with debt . Thaler and Sunstein share how various choice architecture tools or nudges can be used to protect consumers against against (i) crippling credit card debts and (ii) unethical market behaviors for housing mortgages.
  • The ultimate goal of insurance is to protect against financial ruin from rare but major disasters (e.g. critical illnesses or a fire destroying your home). The book covers several dos and don’ts, with recommended nudges for people to make smarter insurance choices.

Society/Environment: Nudges for the Wider Good

  • In many cases, default opt-ins can be one of the most effective nudges to get people onboard something that’s good for them. However, organ donation may be an exception because it involves 3 different groups of key stakeholders (patients, donors and their families) and is highly sensitive. The authors discuss various possible approaches and their pros/cons, including innovative nudges adopted by some countries like Singapore and Israel.
  • Climate change is one of the most complex challenges facing the global community. The authors used behavioral economics to explain why so little has been done to date (e.g. factors  like present bias, free-riding, lack of salience and feedback).  Unfortunately, nudges alone cannot solve the problem. Hence, the authors recommend an “all tools on deck” approach with a mix of regulations, incentives, penalties, and interventions.

Getting the Most from Nudge

Nudge summary - book summary bundle

This book is filled with detailed examples, case studies and statistics to illustrate the complexity, nuances and applications of behavioral economics in the real world. Each of the examples in this summary are discussed at length in the book, along with additional examples including aviation security, GDPR, education and financial assistance. You can purchase the book here or visit nudges.wordpress.com for more details and information.

To learn more about mental heuristics, do check out our Thinking, Fast and Slow summary .

About the Authors of Nudge

Nudge: Improving Decisions About Health, Wealth, and Happiness is written by Richard Thaler and Cass Sunstein.

Richard H. Thaler is an American economist and the Charles R. Walgreen Distinguished Service Professor of Behavioral Science and Economics at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business. In 2017, he was awarded the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences for his contributions to behavioral economics. He was the president of the American Economic Association in 2015, and was elected a member in the National Academy of Sciences in 2018. Thaler holds a B.A. degree from Case Western Reserve University, and an M.A. and Ph.D. degree from the University of Rochester.

Cass Robert Sunstein is an American legal scholar known for his work in behavioral economics and constitutional, administrative and environmental law. From 2009-2012, he was the Administrator of the White House Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs in the Obama administration. He’s a professor at the University of Chicago Law School and the Robert Walmsley University Professor at Harvard Law School.

Nudge Quotes

“Nudges are generally designed to help people find the right means to their own ends.”

“Sometimes, information can be a surprisingly strong motivator.”

“A primary function of prompted choice is overcoming procrastination, inertia, and limited attention.”

“A market for advice does not guarantee that the advice will be good.”

“If the goal is to make it really easy, make it automatic.”

“By properly deploying both incentives and nudges, we can improve our ability to improve people’s lives, and help solve many of society’s major problems. And we can do so while still insisting on everyone’s freedom to choose.”

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review of the book nudge

Behavioral Scientist

Why Not Nudge? A Review of Cass Sunstein’s Why Nudge

review of the book nudge

Image: Max Nesterak, adapted from Penguin Books

This article was originally published on  The Psych Report  before it became part of the  Behavioral Scientist  in 2017.

T he field mistakenly called “behavioral economics” (mistakenly because what it is is psychology applied to domains that are the normal province of economists) has taken the intellectual and political world by storm.  The field was given shape by the seminal work of Daniel Kahneman and Amos Tversky—work that started about forty years ago. Kahneman was justly awarded a Nobel Prize in economics for this work, and his marvelous book, Thinking, Fast and Slow, published in 2011, does a terrific job of letting lay readers in on what all the excitement is about. As a companion to Kahneman’s book, one could not do much better than Nudge , written in 2008 by Richard Thaler (another seminal figure in behavioral economics) and Cass Sunstein. 

Nudge takes many of the insights developed by Kahneman and Tversky about what is called “bounded rationality” and applies them to various matters of public policy. The point of the book is that people are often not the best judges of what will serve their interests, and that institutions, including government, can help people do better for themselves (and the rest of us) with small changes—nudges—in the structure of the choices people face.  Nudge is an elaboration of a very important paper by Thaler and Sunstein in which they introduced the term “libertarian paternalism” and defended it as a not very coercive way to make people more effective at getting what they want. 

What Kahneman and Tversky did for the basic psychology of decision making, Thaler and Sunstein did for policy. In domains as disparate as savings, health care, driving, energy conservation, eating, and even urinating (by men), Thaler and Sunstein provided evidence that left to their own devices, people often make mistakes, sometimes very consequential ones, and that these mistakes can be mitigated or even eliminated if institutions take an active role in doing so.

The oxymoronic term “libertarian paternalism” captures much of the thinking behind Nudge .  Its recommendations are paternalistic in that they try to steer people in the right direction.  But it is libertarian in that people are free to resist nudges if they choose to do so. This libertarian paternalist approach has come to be called “soft paternalism,” in that people are influenced, but not required, to move in certain directions.

Nudge has caught the policy world by storm. In England, a “ behavioral insights unit ” develops nudges to make citizens healthier, wealthier, and safer.  Such teams are under development in other nations, including the U.S. And Sunstein, in four years as regulatory czar in the first Obama administration, introduced several nudges, most with little publicity, that have probably saved citizens millions and the government billions. So it looks as though most of us have nudges in our future.

At the same time, there has been an anti-paternalist backlash. The libertarian streak that runs through much of the U.S. and the west recoils at any efforts at manipulation, especially by government.  It is disrespectful. The intentions of government can’t be trusted.  Neither can its own assessment of what is in the best interests of citizens. To my mind, Thaler and Sunstein addressed these sorts of objections more than adequately in Nudge . But Sunstein apparently thought that more needed to be said.  Why Nudge is the result.

Why Nudge is a slender volume. To allow readers to understand what makes this an issue, Sunstein reviews, very briefly, some of the findings reported in Thinking Fast and Slow and some of the interventions discussed in Nudge . He also adds a few recent interventions that are too new to have been reported in Nudge . His capsule summary is quite serviceable in setting up his main point—why nudges are appropriate—but they are not a substitute for the real thing. Thus, I urge people to read the books by Kahneman and by Thaler and Sunstein.

It is no longer paternalistic to nudge people, because you are not (simply) protecting  them  from themselves; you are protecting others from them as well. 

Sunstein’s principle objective is to defend nudges against a variety of libertarian critics.  From my point of view, he does this quite convincingly (though I hasten to point out that I didn’t need convincing).  He centers the concerns of critics on two principles—the “harm principle” (from J.S. Mill) and the “epistemic principle” (largely derived from neoclassical economics). The harm principle basically asserts that people should have the liberty to do things that harm themselves, no matter how stupid they may be. Restraining liberty to prevent harm to others is one thing; doing it to prevent harm to the self is quite another. The epistemic principle is that no one knows better than the individual decision maker what will serve his or her welfare, so that it is presumptuous to imagine that the state, or an employer, can do a better job of looking out for our interests than we can.

Sunstein does a fine job responding to these objections, though I think he gives them more credit than they deserve. As for the harm principle, I think there are very few decisions people make that don’t have effects on others. It is rare to find a decision of any consequence that does not have externalities. If you neglect your health, others bear a burden. If you fail to save for retirement, others bear a burden. If you apply to a medical school that you aren’t so interested in attending, it may prevent a less impressive classmate from being admitted. Our decisions usually cast a shadow, sometimes a long one. When they do, the harm principle becomes irrelevant.  It is no longer paternalistic to nudge people, because you are not (simply) protecting them from themselves; you are protecting others from them as well. This kind of situation is standard issue for justified government intervention, and it puts the debate on more familiar turf. Not everything we do that has externalities should be regulated, so judgments must be made about the magnitude of potential harms to others and the magnitude of infringements on ones personal freedom.  But this is the kind of conversation about the role of the state that we are accustomed to having.

As for the epistemic principle, it is simply false. Psychologists Dan Gilbert and Tim Wilson, in many papers with many collaborators, have made careers out of demonstrating how frequently people don’t know what they want. People mispredict the effects their decisions will have on them as a matter of routine; they are wrong more often than they are right. Indeed, in Gilbert’s book, Stumbling on Happiness , he makes the controversial but I think profound argument that people will do better asking others who have already made a decision how it turned out than they will by imagining the effects of decisions on themselves. In his words, “surrogation” will be much more reliable than “simulation.” We have elevated the myth of our uniqueness to high principle and as a result think we have little to learn from the experiences of others. This is just false.

There are other arguments against nudges. People learn from mistakes, so let them make some. I think this is undeniably true and it is a good lesson to parents who struggle mightily to shield their kids from every misfortune. Yes, let people make mistakes, but try to prevent them from making catastrophic, or even big ones.

Government may be malevolent or incompetent, so why trust them to nudge us. This is a fair concern, which Sunstein addresses by insisting that all nudges be transparent.

Society benefits from the diversity of human decisions and experiences and this would be lost if everyone were nudged into the same cattle chute. This, too, seems true, but it mischaracterizes the intent of nudges, which for the most part are focused on steering people to the right means for achieving their self-identified ends, and not to steering them to particular ends (though on this point, Sunstein is quick to acknowledge that nudges can change ends as well as means).

If you neglect your health, others bear a burden.  If you fail to save for retirement, others bear a burden…Our decisions usually cast a shadow, sometimes a long one.

This leaves one further argument, to which Sunstein devotes a full chapter—the importance of autonomy. For some, autonomy is so important that giving any of it up is unjustifiable, even if it means allowing people to make serious mistakes. Better to give people unbiased information and force them to choose than to use that information to nudge them, often unbeknownst to them. This is, of course, a serious concern, but not close to decisive. Requiring people to choose is itself paternalistic, since it deprives people of the freedom not to choose.  And there is no “unbiased” way to present anything. As Thaler and Sunstein said in Nudge , and as I have said every time I’ve taught or spoken about nudges, there is simply no neutral. We may take the familiar format of options as neutral, but that’s only because it’s familiar. So given that there is no neutral, does one violate neutrality randomly, based on accidents of history? Does one allow marketers to violate neutrality to serve their (and not consumers’) interests?  Or does one violate neutrality to enable citizens to live better lives? The answer seems completely clear-cut to me.

One final point on the theme of autonomy is the slogan that we should “treat people as ends, never as means.” I wholeheartedly endorse this aspiration. But what, exactly, does it mean in connection with nudges? When we nudge our kids into doing things that are good for them, are we treating them as means? To the contrary, we are treating them as ends that we cherish above all else. The same is true when we nudge adults, about whom we can say, based on forty years of research, that they sometimes/often act like kids. It is because we value them as ends that we try to help them achieve welfare-enhancing results. Nudging people for their own good hardly entails treating them as means rather than ends.

To conclude, Why Nudge is a fine book. It treats critics of the “soft paternalism” of nudges with great respect, it is non-dogmatic, and it is nuanced and sophisticated in its arguments. I don’t recommend this book as a substitute for Thinking Fast and Slow or Nudge . But it is an excellent next book to read. And in a pinch, for those of us too busy making decisions that the world will not make for us to read so many books, it provides a faithful snapshot of the earlier books so that its main arguments are self-contained.

Why Nudge? By Cass Sunstein 208 pp. Yale University Press. $25.

review of the book nudge

Barry Schwartz

Barry Schwartz is a visiting professor at Haas School of Business, U.C. Berkeley, emeritus professor of psychology at Swarthmore College, and the author of The Paradox of Choice , Why We Work , and Practical Wisdom (with Kenneth Sharpe).

Further Reading & Resources

  • Why Nudge?: The Politics of Libertarian Paternalism (The Storrs Lectures Series)  by Cass Sunstein (2014)
  • Nudge: Improving Decisions About Health, Wealth, and Happiness  By Richard Thaler and Cass Sunstein (2008)
  • Thinking, Fast and Slow  By Daniel Kahneman (2011)
  • The Paradox of Choice: Why More Is Less  By Barry Schwartz (2004)
  • The Battle for Human Nature: Science, Morality and Modern Life  By Barry Schwartz (1987)
  • the psych report

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Book Review of Nudge: The Final Edition

The standard newsletter, filter by edition, written by: mark zeigler.

Book cover of Nudge with two elephants walking across in Black and Orange

Nudge can get into the weeds on some subjects, but the examples of different ways that a nudge has been used in society are fascinating.  Our discussions at times turned to the ethical considerations that the nudge can lead to.  Regardless of your feelings, we are being nudged in many different ways each day.  The topics of the book give insight into ways the government is nudging citizens to save for retirement or even how cities are enticing citizens to pick up dog waste.  Countries now are creating behavioral insight committees and devoting resources to this topic to help citizens make better choices.  The following are brief chapter summaries for Nudge.

Chapter 1: Biases and Blunders

The first chapter discusses the way in which a person processes a situation (the automatic system vs the reflective system).  In order for the automatic system to quickly process data, our body uses biases to simplify the decision-making process.  Anchoring, framing, status quo bias, rules of thumb, and loss aversion are all discussed.  The biases that the automatic system relies on can be used in ways to get a specific result.

Chapter 2: Resisting Temptation

Chapter 2 begins by looking at temptation. Temptation applies any time that we consume more of something when we are in an aroused (or hot) state.  People use self-control strategies (lists, etc) to reduce the effect of temptation. Christmas clubs are another outside method to control a temptation (overspending during the holidays).  Even though money is fungible, mental accounting is another method people use to give their money different jobs to complete.

Chapter 3: Following the Herd

Humans are easily nudged by other humans using peer pressure and social influence.  People conform to the group even when they know that the group is wrong.  People also conform with others in similar demographics (Democrat vs Republican, nationality, culture, region, ethnicity, religion, or even favorite sports team).  “Don’t Mess With Texas!” was one example given using Dallas Cowboys fans in the state of Texas to reduce littering.

Chapter 4: When Do We Need A Nudge?

Always offer nudges that are most likely to help and least likely to cause harm.  Humans tend to space out and forget.  Infrequent events can benefit from reminders and feedback is key.  It is easy to exploit a person’s lack of information by selling them the next snake oil.  This is where a well-timed nudge can make a huge difference.

Chapter 5: Choice Architecture

If you want to encourage something, Make It Easy!  For this reason, the path of least resistance (or default option) needs to provide a good result.   Providing feedback for good and bad choices is also important.  Structuring complex choices down into easily understandable blocks help humans map the choices they make to the outcomes they desire.  Another form of choice architecture is aligning incentives to nudge toward a particular behavior (tax incentives, etc).

Chapter 6: But Wait, There’s More

There are two bonus methods of choice architecture discussed in this chapter.  Curation is where choices are curated down to a recommended selection (music stores, bookstores, etc).    The second method is to make it fun.  Lotteries and reward systems are two methods of choice architecture to lead people to a predetermined behavior.

Chapter 7: Smart Disclosure

Smart Disclosure is how information is collected and made available to consumers.  Standardized units of measure (MPG for cars and APR for borrowers) are important tools for consumers to compare offers.  Disclosures (or fine print) can be long and detailed.  All disclosures should be machine-readable and all personal user data should be made available to the user being tracked.  The example of Netflix and how your viewing history is tracked and recommendations are made is provided.  If you owned a set of that data you could see how and why certain recommendations are being made.

Chapter 8: #Sludge

Sludge is the opposite of the phrase Make It Easy.  Sludge is used to make something more difficult or tedious so that a person will not complete the task.  Examples of sludge are red tape and difficulty in canceling subscriptions.  Rebates and less transparent pricing are other examples of sludge.  The entire tax system in the United States is full of sludge.  An entire industry exists to help you fill out the forms necessary to calculate and pay your taxes.  Reduce sludge one step at a time!

Chapter 9: Save More Tomorrow

Saving for retirement is a very difficult activity for humans to take.  The move to defined contribution plans has made the employee responsible for saving towards their retirement.  The government has nudged people to enroll in the plans by making them tax deductible and the growth tax-deferred with matching contributions.  There is still more to be done.  Automatic enrollment in a strong default plan can be critical to get employees to participate.  The Save More Tomorrow plan ties savings increases to pay increases to increase saving over time.  Index funds and target date funds have made a strong default plan an easier option as well.

Chapter 10: Do Nudges Last Forever?  Perhaps in Sweden

A case study is looked at on the Swedish Premium Pension Plan. The plan itself gave lots of choices to participants.  Sweden heavily advertised the plan at the outset and drove active choice numbers up initially.  However, the active plan choosers chose portfolios with higher fees, higher equity exposure, a local concentration (home bias), and less investment in index funds.  They could have done a better job by picking an index fund.  Active choice didn’t last long either.  Once advertising ended, the active choosers tended to set it and forget it and not make further changes.  The default option became better over time (a global index fund).  The takeaways were to offer fewer choices and a better default investment option.

Chapter 11: Borrow More Today: Mortgages and Credit Cards

Mortgages and credit cards allow you to borrow from tomorrow.  Mortgages tend to be surrounded by a lot of sludge.  The sludge makes it more difficult than necessary to get the mortgage that is the best fit.  Smart disclosure could be used to easily compare mortgages and credit cards. The average American has four credit cards and almost half do not pay off the balance in full each month.  A person will spend more money when using a card, then when using cash.  Credit cards also are not only an American problem.  Residents of China now have more credit card debt than Americans.

Chapter 12: Insurance: Don’t Sweat the Small Stuff

The most important part of insurance is to get coverage for rare but significant mishaps that can lead to financial ruin.  One of the largest mistakes people make is choosing a deductible that is too low.  In general, choose the largest deductible available.  In regards to warranties, you want to self-insure as much as possible and avoid purchasing warranties.  In terms of health insurance, the “choose the higher deductible rule” would benefit people most of the time (even in high healthcare cost years)!

Chapter 13: Organ Donations: The Default Solution Illusion

Organ donation is studied in order to increase participation to save more lives in the face of sudden death.  Explicit consent prompted choice, mandated choice, and incentives are all compared and contrasted.  Examples from other countries are viewed and different methods to opt in (when renewing a driver’s license or when setting up a new iphone) are discussed.  

Chapter 14: Saving the Planet

 Saving the planet and climate change are a perfect storm of a situation where cooperation is very difficult.  Present bias, salience, no specific villain, probabilistic harms, and loss aversion all play a factor.  Trust is key to gaining any global change.  The environmental situation is a tragedy of the commons.  Each country has the incentive to pollute and take the least expensive choice, but if all countries do that, we will do irreparable harm to our planet.  Green taxes and a cap and trade system can provide small gains.  Sometimes better is a good step.  Incentives and automatic green choices can also be used to drive change.

Chapter 15: Much Ado About Nudging

 The final chapter discusses how choice architects can be malicious and choice architecture can be a slippery slope.  Freedom to choose (or not) is one way to combat malicious intent.  Transparency and strong default choices are also key. Taxes, mandates, and bans raise questions about the motives behind nudges and whether an informed choice is the best option for humans.

As you can see, Nudge covers many topics and provides numerous examples.  A sobering fact hit particularly close to home as an AFC. Financial literacy was looked at in high school students.  The longer the training period, the better the results.  Effects are modest.  All of the benefits disappear in a 2-year time frame. This shows that nudges are an important tool to use to drive beneficial choices and lasting change.

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review of the book nudge

Nudge Summary

1-Sentence-Summary:   Nudge shows you how you can unconsciously make better decisions by designing your environment so it nudges you in the right direction every time temptation becomes greatest and thus build your own choice architecture in advance.

Favorite quote from the author:

Nudge Summary

Audio Summary

Listen to the audio of this summary with a free reading.fm account*:

Nudge was co-authored by two professors. One is Cass Sunstein , who taught law for 27 years and worked in the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs under Barack Obama from 2009 to 2012. He recently made his debut on Four Minute Books the wonderful, but totally unrelated The World According to Star Wars .

His partner in nudging, Richard Thaler , is a professor of behavioral economics at the University of Chicago, where Sunstein also taught. Thaler has worked with Nobel prize laureate Daniel Kahneman , and both have pushed the envelope of the science of decision-making quote a bit. He was even featured as himself in the Hollywood blockbuster The Big Short .

What makes this choice-book different is its focus on environment design, rather than improving your inner strength, willpower, etc. to make better decisions.

Here are my 3 favorite lessons:

  • A nudge is a subtle cue or context change that pushes you to make a certain decision without forcing you to.
  • One of the most powerful nudges is the default.
  • When states use nudges well, they can improve entire countries.

Need a nudge in the right direction? This ought to do it!

If you want to save this summary for later, download the free PDF and read it whenever you want.

Lesson 1: Nudges are tiny hints or changes, which push you in one direction, but leave all options open.

Have you ever been talked into going out by a friend, at first not wanting to go, but after she teased you a bit and you dressed up, you ended up having a really good time? That’s a nudge in action.

Used right, a nudge is a very small action or change in environment, which makes it easier for you to make the decision that’s best for you , without forcing you to decide a certain way.

For example, if the cafeteria put the fruits next to the registrar, and not the candy bars, you’d eat more bananas – simply because they’re easier to pick up. When the cashier at McDonald’s asks you “Do you want fries with that?” that’s also a nudge (but one in the wrong direction). The little flag some mailboxes have that turns up when mail is inside the box? Another nudge.

We’re being nudged all day, sometimes towards good decisions, sometimes towards bad ones. The cool thing is, you can design your environment in ways that more good nudges will happen, for example by installing blocking software to restrict access to distracting websites .

Lesson 2: A default is a very powerful nudge, as it requires you to actively object it for it not to work.

Sometimes, it’s possible to design situations where decisions need to be made in a way that if you decide automatically , you naturally make the right choice.

For example, if you send an email through Gmail  and type something like “please find attached” or “I’ll attach the file” in the email’s body and you then forget to upload the actual attachment, Gmail automatically prompts you with the question “Did you want to send an attachment with this?” It’s a very situation-specific nudge, but it can save tons of time and frustration in the long run.

This particular type of nudge is called a default. Default nudges are set up in a way that if you do nothing, you’ll still do the right thing by sticking to the preset standard .

At scale, companies can use this by automatically enrolling their employees in their matching-retirement plan programs, unless they explicitly object to participating. This helps a lot of lazy people save for retirement because they would never have enrolled if they’d had to actively do it themselves.

Similarly, gyms and magazines abuse this by automatically renewing your subscription, unless you cancel it. Again, nudges can be used both ways.

Lesson 3: States and other large institutions can use nudges to improve societies and countries as a whole.

Here’s a really basic way of describing how states work: if the majority of its members make good decisions, the welfare of the state grows . If the majority makes bad decisions, it declines.

For example, 75% of Americans make bad food choices and are therefore either obese or overweight . Imagine all of these people would eat healthier. Obesity would go away, and thus the expensive health problems that come with it. The country would save billions of dollars in treatments, surgery costs, health insurance expenses, etc. It’d be a win-win. Same with smoking.

Sure, a nudge at scale costs a bit to set up, but its effects usually kick in fast. For example, since it’s become mandatory to report carbon emissions , the emissions themselves have gone down significantly – just because companies have to be transparent. No law says they have to emit less carbon dioxide, yet because critics can point fingers, businesses naturally compete to be eco-friendlier.

Another cool state-side nudge is the dollar-a-day program , which gives teenage mothers $1 each day they don’t get pregnant again. $365 may sound like a lot but is much cheaper than having to take care of a newborn or trying to relocate it to a good family.

If they use nudges right, governments and large institutions can spur wise decisions at scale and thus, make life better for everyone!

Nudge Review

What a cool way of reframing the whole decision-making process. As I said in the introduction,  Nudge really is different, just topically related to all the other decision-making books, which is precisely what makes it so powerful. Thumbs up!

Who would I recommend the Nudge summary to?

The 15 year old, who’s already slightly overweight, the 39 year old, who just checked whether he’s enrolled in his company’s retirement saving program, and anyone who works in a place that could help implement nudges at scale.

Last Updated on August 5, 2022

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Niklas Göke

Niklas Göke is an author and writer whose work has attracted tens of millions of readers to date. He is also the founder and CEO of Four Minute Books, a collection of over 1,000 free book summaries teaching readers 3 valuable lessons in just 4 minutes each. Born and raised in Germany, Nik also holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Business Administration & Engineering from KIT Karlsruhe and a Master’s Degree in Management & Technology from the Technical University of Munich. He lives in Munich and enjoys a great slice of salami pizza almost as much as reading — or writing — the next book — or book summary, of course!

*Four Minute Books participates in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising commissions by linking to Amazon. We also participate in other affiliate programs, such as Blinkist, MindValley, Audible, Audiobooks, Reading.FM, and others. Our referral links allow us to earn commissions (at no extra cost to you) and keep the site running. Thank you for your support.

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48 pages • 1 hour read

Nudge: Improving Decisions About Health, Wealth, and Happiness

A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Introduction – Part 1

Part 4-Epilogue

Key Figures

Index of Terms

Important Quotes

Essay Topics

Discussion Questions

Summary and Study Guide

In 2021 the behavioral economists Richard H. Thaler and the legal scholar Cass R. Sunstein released an updated, “final” version of their 2008 book Nudge: Improving Decisions about Health, Wealth, and Happiness . Drawing on research from psychology, economics, sociology, and elsewhere, Thaler and Sunstein make the case for the importance of “nudges.” Nudges, according to these authors, are “aspects of choice architecture” that predictably alter behavior without forbidding or commanding anything (8). Choice architecture refers to the rules and options that define the context in which choices are made. Since the original publication of the book, “nudge theory” has become widely integrated into large swaths of political and corporate decision-making, though it remains controversial, especially in academic contexts. Thaler went on to win a Nobel Prize for his work in behavioral economics, and Sunstein, one of the most cited thinkers of his generation, gained a position in the Obama White House. This study guide references the “final edition” of Nudge , published by Penguin Books in 2021 as a paperback. In several aspects, it is significantly different from the original book. Readers are advised to use the final edition.

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Nudge: The Final Edition is divided into five parts. “Part 1: Humans and Econs,” follows an Introduction that outlines the basic concepts of nudging, choice architecture, and libertarian paternalism , the three most fundamental concepts of the theory. Part 1 discusses the difference between real people and the idealized reasoning agents of economic models. Through an overview of human judgment based upon behavioral data, Thaler and Sunstein make the case that nudges have an important role in shaping the world. Whereas the perfect reasoning agents of theoretical economics might be impervious to the influence of nudges (if not incentives) real humans are not. They discuss common flaws in human reasoning, the issues with heuristic devices used in decision-making, and the impact of social influences (traditions, norms, etc.) on behavior.

“Part 2: The Tools of the Choice Architect” is an account of the elements of choice architecture, their relevance to the architects of choice (in both the public and personal spheres), and the data on the effects of these tools in various domains of the economy. It includes assessments of practices that improve consumer welfare, like “smart disclosure,” and practices that make autonomous decision-making more difficult, like “sludge.” The goal is to make explicit to choice architects across all domains what their responsibilities are and how they can use the concepts of choice design to improve the context of consumer choice.

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Thaler and Sunstein then turn to personal finance. The first two chapters of Part 3 are about retirement savings. They laud the rise of defined contribution plans and explain the mechanics of various retirement systems. They also discuss at length a particular case study in choice architecture: Swedish savings accounts. Then they turn to credit cards, mortgages, and an economy that is based on debt. They end this section with a discussion of insurance.

Part 4 discusses two major political and social issues, climate change and organ donation. They address some of the ways these issues have been handled internationally and the various approaches to nudging. In line with their professed libertarian paternalist standpoint, they argue for nudges that push people in the direction of their welfare, the welfare of others, and the welfare of the planet. At the same time, they refrain from advocating for mandates, especially insofar as they hope to retain individual liberties. In Part 5, they respond to critics and defend the value of their theory.

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The Right Thing: Should you nudge friends to pay up?

How much of a nudge should you be when trying to get reimbursed for a group gift?

A group of friends who have belonged to a book club for more than a decade were overjoyed to learn that one of the club’s members was expecting her first child. As a surprise, the group decided that it would chip in on a group present for their fellow reader.

After a flurry of emails, the group agreed on a present and one of the book club members, a reader we’re calling Paige, agreed to purchase the gift and then get reimbursed from fellow book club members. The idea was to have the gift in time for their next monthly book club meeting at which they could present it to the soon-to-be mother.

Two of the 10 book club members Venmo-ed Paige their share of the gift’s cost right after it was ordered. Once the gift arrived, Paige emailed everyone except for the expectant mother to let them know. In a reply-to-all on her email, another book club member asked how she would like to be repaid. Paige responded that reimbursing her via the Venmo app as a few others had already done would work fine.

Upon receiving the news, one more of the book club members Venmo-ed her share. That meant Paige and three others had paid their share and six more book club members were yet to pony up.

“How much should I nudge them to pay?” asked Paige, acknowledging that they all agreed to share the cost and know that she outlaid the money.

Paige wanted to know if it would be wrong to send an email to all of those who hadn’t paid to tell them they could pay her now or they could give her cash or a check when they passed around a card to sign at their next book club meeting when they planned to present the gift? “Does that send the message that I don’t trust them to repay?” Paige asked.

There is absolutely nothing wrong with Paige sending a reminder to her book club friends. Partly, this will let them know of her plan to circulate a card for them to sign at their next meeting, but it will also provide a nice reminder.

The one risk of the plan to let those who owe money to pay what they owe when the card is circulated is that it could send the message to them to hold off paying their share until then. If Paige is OK with that, then her plan seems sound.

But the right thing would be to send it to everyone in the group (other than the expectant mother) rather than just those who didn’t pay. By doing so, she’d be including them on her plan and by naming them she would also make clear to others that those three had already paid up.

There’s no reason Paige should worry about being left paying for more than her share of the gift, but whenever someone agrees to foot the cost for a group gift for which others could reimburse their share, there’s always a bit of a risk. If Paige clearly presents options for those who have yet to pay, it will serve as a reminder and might provide her some peace of mind.

©2024 Tribune Content Agency, LLC

How much of a nudge should you be when trying to get reimbursed for a group gift?

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Inside the Best-Seller List

Dolly Alderton Loves Writing Peripheral Kooks

The best-selling British writer has an eye for bit players, including ones who nudge, nag, gripe and blurt inconvenient truths.

In this picture, Dolly Alderton is standing in front of a pink bedsheet that hangs from the branches of a large tree. She's wearing a blue flowered dress and her blond hair is loose around her shoulders.

By Elisabeth Egan

Elisabeth Egan is an editor at the Book Review and the author of “A Window Opens.”

Early in Dolly Alderton’s best-selling second novel, “ Good Material ,” her 31-year-old protagonist, Andy, is carrying his best friend’s son on his shoulders when the boy unleashes a stream of brutal commentary about a third-rail topic: the bald spot on the back of Andy’s head. It’s a hilarious scene — and a refreshing one. Clearly we’re in the hands of the rare author who is going to let kids be kids. We know the alternative: fictional children who are too cute, too clever or mysteriously in possession of a Yoda-like pithiness that puts adult intellect to shame.

How did Alderton, who doesn’t have children, strike a realistic chord for her young characters? She listened to her best friends’ offspring. “I spend lots of time around little mouths and little brains,” Alderton said in a phone interview. “Nothing jolts you out of a story more than when you hear children being written as an adult memory of what they were like as children.”

Indeed, Alderton thanks two members of the younger generation, Sienna and Zadie, in her acknowledgments: “For the brilliant and weird things you say and do — for helping me remember how young minds work. I love you, and I love your mums for bringing you into my life. You can borrow all of my handbags.”

Alderton didn’t formally interview these girls — that’s not a cool auntie’s style — and Gen Alpha certainly isn’t the focus of her witty, tender story of a newly single comedian finding his footing among smug marrieds (as her literary forebear Helen Fielding might have called them). She rigs a tightrope across a familiar chasm, then dances across it with Philippe Petit-like grace: “I think particularly in the mid-30s, both sides are aware of the divide between people with young children and people without young children,” Alderton said. “We’re so aware of not burdening each other with each other’s lifestyles. I just thought it was kind of ripe for comedy.”

In addition to non-nauseating children, readers can expect a full cast of fully drawn bit players in “Good Material.” There’s the surly blue-haired clerk at the storage facility; the silver-tongued scammer with the leaky houseboat; and the 78-year-old conspiracy theorist roommate. (There’s also a wise mother who knows exactly when to cue up Frank Sinatra, but she’s in more of a supporting role, as parents tend to be.) “I love writing peripheral kooks,” Alderton said. “Everyone’s life is enriched by these hidden relationships, with people who make you think or challenge your preconceptions. They’re deeply enriching in a day-to-day human way, and in a story they diversify the ensemble.”

Elisabeth Egan is a writer and editor at the Times Book Review. She has worked in the world of publishing for 30 years. More about Elisabeth Egan

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  3. Richard Thaler Updates His Book Nudge For Its Final Edition : The ...

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  5. Nudge: The Final Edition

    29 November 2021 Nudge: The Final Edition Richard H. Thaler and Cass R. Sunstein 2021, Yale University Press, 384 pages, ISBN 9780300262285 Reviewer: Vicky Pryce, Chief Economic Adviser & Board Member, CEBR

  6. Review of Nudge: The Final Edition Paperback

    The irrevocably final version of Nudge, published slightly more than a decade after the original (erstwhile subtitled Improving decisions about health, wealth and happiness) restores a masterpiece with wit, charm, intellect, reflection and relevance that we have come to expect from the synonymous duo of Richard Thaler and Cass Sunstein.

  7. Brief book review

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  9. Jason Furman's review of Nudge: The Final Edition

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  10. PDF Review of Nudge: The Final Edition Paperback 19 Aug 2021

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  11. Nudge: Improving Decisions about Health, Wealth and Happiness

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  15. Nudge (book)

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  16. Book Summary

    1. The Automatic System is fast, instinctive, effortless, and associative. It allows us to make countless decisions daily without conscious thought. 2. The Reflective System is slow, deliberate, effortful, and deductive. This is the conscious, deliberate process that we associate with "thinking".

  17. Book Review: 'Nudge'

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  21. Nudge Summary

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  22. Nudge Summary and Study Guide

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  26. The Right Thing: Should you nudge friends to pay up?

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  27. Dolly Alderton Loves Writing Peripheral Kooks

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