{"id":14408,"date":"2014-04-25T20:05:29","date_gmt":"2014-04-25T19:05:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.rogerdarlington.me.uk\/nighthawk\/?p=14408"},"modified":"2014-04-25T20:05:29","modified_gmt":"2014-04-25T19:05:29","slug":"why-citizens-and-consumers-often-need-a-nudge","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.rogerdarlington.me.uk\/nighthawk\/?p=14408","title":{"rendered":"Why citizens and consumers often need a nudge"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>In 2008, a book was published which proved seminal in discussions about how people make decisions and how they can be encouraged to make better decisions. It was called <em>&#8220;Nudge&#8221;<\/em> and written by two American academics called\u00a0Richard H Thaler &amp; Cass R Sunstein.\u00a0 I have reviewed the work\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.rogerdarlington.me.uk\/nfbooks.html#Nudge\">here<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Today Sunstein has an article in the &#8220;Guardian: newspaper in which he explains:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><span style=\"line-height: 1.5em;\">&#8220;<\/span>\u2026<span style=\"line-height: 1.5em;\">\u00a0both private and public institutions have been exploring the potential of &#8220;nudges&#8221; \u2013 approaches that steer people towards certain outcomes while also allowing them to go their own way. A GPS is a classic example of a nudge. So are disclosure requirements, warnings, email reminders, statements about social norms (&#8220;most people pay their taxes on time&#8221;), the use of bright colours and large fonts, simplified forms, cafeterias that put healthy foods first, and default rules which might automatically enrol people in a pension plan.&#8221;<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>He argues:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><span style=\"line-height: 1.5em;\">&#8220;The beauty of nudges is that when they are well chosen, they make people&#8217;s lives better while maintaining freedom of choice. Moreover, they usually don&#8217;t cost a lot, and they tend to have\u00a0big effects. In an economically challenging time,&#8221;<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><span style=\"line-height: 1.5em;\">and:<\/span><\/p>\n<blockquote><p><span style=\"line-height: 1.5em;\">&#8220;The great advantage of nudges is that they recognise the diversity of people&#8217;s situations and the risk of government error, while acknowledging people&#8217;s legitimate interest in preserving their own liberty. No one denies that requirements and bans have their place. But in a society that respects its citizens, we should start with a presumption in favour of freedom of choice.&#8221;<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><span style=\"line-height: 1.5em;\">You can read Sunstein&#8217;s article <\/span><a style=\"line-height: 1.5em;\" href=\"http:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/commentisfree\/2014\/apr\/24\/nudge-backlash-free-society-dignity-coercion\">here<\/a><span style=\"line-height: 1.5em;\">.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In 2008, a book was published which proved seminal in discussions about how people make decisions and how they can be encouraged to make better decisions. It was called &#8220;Nudge&#8221; and written by two American academics called\u00a0Richard H Thaler &amp; Cass R Sunstein.\u00a0 I have reviewed the work\u00a0here. Today Sunstein has an article in the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14408","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-consumer-matters"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.rogerdarlington.me.uk\/nighthawk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14408","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.rogerdarlington.me.uk\/nighthawk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.rogerdarlington.me.uk\/nighthawk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.rogerdarlington.me.uk\/nighthawk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.rogerdarlington.me.uk\/nighthawk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=14408"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"http:\/\/www.rogerdarlington.me.uk\/nighthawk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14408\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14418,"href":"http:\/\/www.rogerdarlington.me.uk\/nighthawk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14408\/revisions\/14418"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.rogerdarlington.me.uk\/nighthawk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=14408"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.rogerdarlington.me.uk\/nighthawk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=14408"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.rogerdarlington.me.uk\/nighthawk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=14408"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}