Nudges
A “nudge” is a gentle push a friend gives you/to get your attention. However,/you can also be nudged by strangers/for other purposes. What’s more,/you may not even know what’s happening.
You are at a subway station/in Stockholm,/Sweden. You get off the subway/and look for a way/to get to the street. You find stairs of black and white keys/—like huge piano keys—/leading up to the exit. When you step on the keys,/they make piano-like sounds. You can take the escalator if you want,/but you’ll probably choose the musical stairs/because they are so much fun. At the same time,/you will be exercising. The experimental piano stairs/resulted in a 66% increase/in the use of steps.
A “nudge” is a little change/that leads you to do something/you may not have planned to do. Nudges came to popular attention in 2008/when Richard H. Thaler and Cass R. Sunstein/published Nudge:/Improving Decisions about Health,/Wealth,/and Happiness. The basic idea is to design an environment/which makes it easy for people/to do the right thing,/or at least to do/what you want them to do. In many countries,/nudges have proved to be effective.
Also in Sweden,/there was an experiment to encourage people/to throw their trash away properly. A loudspeaker and a sensor/were placed inside an ordinary trash can. When you dropped something into the can,/it made a long falling sound/as if the bottom was deep underground. People loved it/and because of the little nudge,/the streets became much cleaner.
The Indian city of Mumbai/is known as “the honking capital of the world.” Mumbai drivers are always honking. They even honk at traffic lights. To encourage better manners,/police have come up with/the “Honk More, Wait More” system. The system resets the red signal/every time the sound of horns/goes above 85 decibels:/a little nudge to be patient.
We can also find examples of nudges/in schools. Many schools in the U.S./use a nudge in their cafeterias/to encourage healthy choices. Research shows/that if you put fruit in an attractive bowl/at the start of the line,/more students make the healthy choice:/they choose fruit.
Not all nudges promote/healthy or socially beneficial behavior. Some nudges are neither healthy/nor beneficial.
Some online services/offer free trial subscriptions,/and then automatically charge you/when the trial period ends. The nudge of a free trial leads you/to make involuntary purchases. It targets careless people. Canceling the subscription/can be a lot of trouble. You might have to contact a call center/at strange hours/or argue with the sales staff. You will have been tricked by a nudge.
Sometimes/nudges lead us to do things/that are not in our best interests/or those that are even dangerous. An example is a part-time taxi driver/who has finished work for the day. She is too tired to drive safely,/but the taxi company wants her/to stay on the job. They could simply order her/to stay on. However,/one American company uses nudges/rather than orders. They send the driver a notice/that she is close to meeting a target/which will raise her salary. They also send the location of a nearby customer. The driver decides on her own/to stay on the job. She has been “nudged” to do something/which is neither healthy/nor socially beneficial.
Nudges are supposed to give people/a gentle reminder to do something/they are already interested in doing/or which will be socially beneficial. But as we have seen,/nudges are powerful tools/that can lead us to do things/that may not be in our best interests. It is best to be cautious.
Richard H. Thaler, the author of Nudge,/proposes three principles:/
1. All nudging should be clear/and never misleading.
2. It should be as easy as possible/to reject a nudge.
3. There should be good reasons to believe/that the encouraged behavior will improve the welfare/of those who are being nudged.
These are the keys to deciding/whether a nudge is proper or improper. Now,/think about the nudges you have just read about/and evaluate them/on the basis of Thaler’s principles.
You are being nudged all day. Pay attention. Welcome the good nudges. Don’t let yourself be fooled/by the bad ones.
A “nudge” is a gentle push a friend gives you/to get your attention. However,/you can also be nudged by strangers/for other purposes. What’s more,/you may not even know what’s happening.
You are at a subway station/in Stockholm,/Sweden. You get off the subway/and look for a way/to get to the street. You find stairs of black and white keys/—like huge piano keys—/leading up to the exit. When you step on the keys,/they make piano-like sounds. You can take the escalator if you want,/but you’ll probably choose the musical stairs/because they are so much fun. At the same time,/you will be exercising. The experimental piano stairs/resulted in a 66% increase/in the use of steps.
A “nudge” is a little change/that leads you to do something/you may not have planned to do. Nudges came to popular attention in 2008/when Richard H. Thaler and Cass R. Sunstein/published Nudge:/Improving Decisions about Health,/Wealth,/and Happiness. The basic idea is to design an environment/which makes it easy for people/to do the right thing,/or at least to do/what you want them to do. In many countries,/nudges have proved to be effective.
Also in Sweden,/there was an experiment to encourage people/to throw their trash away properly. A loudspeaker and a sensor/were placed inside an ordinary trash can. When you dropped something into the can,/it made a long falling sound/as if the bottom was deep underground. People loved it/and because of the little nudge,/the streets became much cleaner.
The Indian city of Mumbai/is known as “the honking capital of the world.” Mumbai drivers are always honking. They even honk at traffic lights. To encourage better manners,/police have come up with/the “Honk More, Wait More” system. The system resets the red signal/every time the sound of horns/goes above 85 decibels:/a little nudge to be patient.
We can also find examples of nudges/in schools. Many schools in the U.S./use a nudge in their cafeterias/to encourage healthy choices. Research shows/that if you put fruit in an attractive bowl/at the start of the line,/more students make the healthy choice:/they choose fruit.
Not all nudges promote/healthy or socially beneficial behavior. Some nudges are neither healthy/nor beneficial.
Some online services/offer free trial subscriptions,/and then automatically charge you/when the trial period ends. The nudge of a free trial leads you/to make involuntary purchases. It targets careless people. Canceling the subscription/can be a lot of trouble. You might have to contact a call center/at strange hours/or argue with the sales staff. You will have been tricked by a nudge.
Sometimes/nudges lead us to do things/that are not in our best interests/or those that are even dangerous. An example is a part-time taxi driver/who has finished work for the day. She is too tired to drive safely,/but the taxi company wants her/to stay on the job. They could simply order her/to stay on. However,/one American company uses nudges/rather than orders. They send the driver a notice/that she is close to meeting a target/which will raise her salary. They also send the location of a nearby customer. The driver decides on her own/to stay on the job. She has been “nudged” to do something/which is neither healthy/nor socially beneficial.
Nudges are supposed to give people/a gentle reminder to do something/they are already interested in doing/or which will be socially beneficial. But as we have seen,/nudges are powerful tools/that can lead us to do things/that may not be in our best interests. It is best to be cautious.
Richard H. Thaler, the author of Nudge,/proposes three principles:/
1. All nudging should be clear/and never misleading.
2. It should be as easy as possible/to reject a nudge.
3. There should be good reasons to believe/that the encouraged behavior will improve the welfare/of those who are being nudged.
These are the keys to deciding/whether a nudge is proper or improper. Now,/think about the nudges you have just read about/and evaluate them/on the basis of Thaler’s principles.
You are being nudged all day. Pay attention. Welcome the good nudges. Don’t let yourself be fooled/by the bad ones.