Nudge: Improving Decisions about Health, Wealth and Happiness

Authors: Richard H. Thaler and Cass R SunsteinReview by : Mitzi Hanold

Authors’ Perspective

• Small changes in the context surrounding decision making can have a large effect on people’s behaviors.

• The book encourages “Choice Architecture” that is taking responsibility for and organizing choices in a way which moves people towards the best option, while also preserving their freedom of choice.

Choices that need nudges

• Behaviors / choices that test your capacity for self control – that is they have delayed benefits or consequences• Pie in the lobby• Flossing / dieting

• Difficult or infrequent choices• Mortgage / marriage partner

• Behaviors that have little feedback built into the choices.• Imagine golfing – with no feedback

Applications to our work…

• The way we discuss items may change the answers that we get.• Use verification questions to increase felt “negative impact” of

not following the prescribed practices.

• People roughly hate losses twice as much as they like gains.• Losing your CORE pen makes you twice as angry as the joy you

had of receiving it.• Don’t emphasize what can be gained by the new health behavior,

but what might be lost if the new behavior is not attained.

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Applications to our work…

• In order to convince people to try a new behavior, focus on the positive results of those who have already tried it.• Of the 100 people who had this operation, 90 are alive

today.• Of the 100 people who had this operation, 10 are dead

today.• Which one of these sentences would reassure you?

• Using small signs/symbols to nudge people out of automatic pilot. • Smiley faces on energy bills• Fly on the urinal

Applications to our work…• A good nudge is to inform people what others people are

doing (if they are doing the correct behavior).• Nine out of ten people in this room will sign up to give a SBC

book review this year.• Nine out of ten people in this room will come to the SBC monthly

phone calls. • The mere measurement of a behavior can nudge towards

change. Priming them after they agree makes the nudge stronger.• Persuasive educational messages = 3% of students going to the

HC.• Giving the same lecture with a map = 28%. • Asking when and how = increased the health seeking behavior by

nine times.

http://nudges.org

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