"Nudge theory is a concept in behavioral economics, decision making, behavioral policy, social psychology, consumer behavior, and related behavioral sciences that proposes adaptive designs of the decision environment (choice architecture) as ways to influence the behavior and decision-making of groups or individuals."
How subtle changes to the environment or presentation of information can influence behavior without restricting options or imposing penalties.
Behavioral economics: The study of how human behavior affects economic decisions and outcomes.
Nudges: Small changes or interventions that motivate people to make better decisions without forcing them to.
Choice architecture: The design of choices and decision-making environments that influence behavior.
Incentives: Positive or negative rewards or punishments that motivate behavior.
Framing: The way in which information or options are presented and can influence decision-making.
Anchoring: The tendency to rely heavily on the first piece of information when making a decision.
Social norming: The power of social influence on behavior, including the tendency to conform to social norms.
Default options: The option chosen when the individual does not take an active choice, often the default option is set as the optimal choice.
Mental accounting: The way in which people categorize and prioritize their spending based on budgetary constraints and perceived needs.
Loss aversion: The strong preference for avoiding losses over achieving gains that can lead to risk aversion in decision-making.
Choice overload: The adverse effect of providing too many choices leading to decision paralysis and decision fatigue.
Confirmation bias: The tendency to interpret and seek out evidence that confirms preexisting beliefs or opinions.
Cognitive biases: Systematic errors in thinking or decision-making that affect the way people process and interpret information.
Prospect theory: A framework for understanding how people make decisions under uncertainty taking into account both loss aversion and reference points.
Availability heuristic: The tendency to overestimate the importance of information that is easily retrievable or readily available in memory.
Priming: The influence of subconscious cues on behavior without conscious awareness of the cue.
Time discounting: The tendency to value immediate rewards over future ones, leading to impulsive decision-making.
Emotional decision-making: The influence of emotions on decision-making that can lead to irrational and inconsistent behavior.
Sensory marketing: The use of sensory stimuli such as smells, sounds, and images to influence behavior.
Biases in perception: The tendency to perceive information selectively or in a biased way based on preexisting beliefs, expectations, and values.
Default Nudges: These nudges are designed in such a way that the default option is set as the desired option for the user.
Social Nudges: These nudges leverage social norms in order to encourage users to take specific actions.
Personalization Nudges: Personalization nudges are designed to cater to the unique preferences and needs of an individual user.
Feedback Nudges: These nudges are designed to give users feedback on their behavior, with the aim of altering their behavior towards desired outcomes.
Goal-Setting Nudges: Goal-setting nudges are designed to encourage users to set specific, achievable goals for themselves.
Reminder Nudges: Reminder nudges leverage reminders to ensure that users take necessary actions.
Loss Aversion Nudges: Loss aversion nudges are designed to leverage the human tendency to focus more on potential losses rather than potential gains.
Scarcity Nudges: Scarcity nudges leverage the fact that humans tend to value things more when they are seen as scarce or limited.
Framing Nudges: These nudges are designed to present information in a way that is most likely to influence a user's behavior.
Priming Nudges: These nudges leverage the human tendency to unconsciously connect concepts or ideas, in order to encourage specific behaviors or actions.
Feedback Nudges: These nudges are designed to give users feedback on their behavior, with the aim of altering their behavior towards desired outcomes.
Stimulus Control Nudges: These strategies involve altering the environment in some way so the desired behavior is more likely to occur. For example, placing healthier food options more prominently than unhealthy ones.
Default Nudges: These nudges are designed to take advantage of the fact that people tend to stick with the default option presented to them when making a decision.
Priming Nudges: These nudges leverage the psychological concept of priming, where certain cues or stimuli can influence people’s behavior without them even realizing it.
Gamification Nudges: These nudges make use of game-like elements to encourage specific behaviors or actions from users.
Salience Nudges: These nudges are designed to draw users’ attention to important information or aspects of a decision, making it more likely for them to take the desired action.
Framing Nudges: These nudges are designed to present information in a way that is most likely to influence a user's behavior.
Incentive Nudges: These nudges offer rewards or incentives for taking certain actions, making it more likely for users to engage in desirable behaviors.
Anchoring Nudges: These nudges take advantage of our tendency to anchor our decision-making based on the first piece of information presented to us.
Confirmation Nudges: Confirmation nudges are designed to encourage users to confirm their intentions or decisions, making it more likely for them to follow through with them.
"The nudge concept was popularized in the 2008 book Nudge: Improving Decisions About Health, Wealth, and Happiness, by behavioral economist Richard Thaler and legal scholar Cass Sunstein."
"Nudge theory relates to behavioral economics, decision making, behavioral policy, social psychology, consumer behavior, and related behavioral sciences."
"Nudging contrasts with other ways to achieve compliance, such as education, legislation, or enforcement."
"Several nudge units exist around the world at the national level (UK, Germany, Japan, and others)."
"It is disputed whether 'nudge theory' is a recent novel development in behavioral economics or merely a new term for one of many methods for influencing behavior, investigated in the science of behavior analysis."
"There have been some controversies regarding the effectiveness of nudges."
"Maier et al. wrote that, after correcting the publication bias found by Mertens et al., there is no evidence that nudging would have any effect."
"Sceptics of nudging believe that it is possible that some nudges (e.g. default effect) can be sometimes highly effective and some nudges have minimal if any effect."
"Skeptics call for future work that shifts away from investigating average effects but focus on moderators instead."
"A meta-analysis of all unpublished nudging studies carried by nudge units with over 23 million individuals in the United Kingdom and United States found support for many nudges, but with substantially weaker effects than effects found in published studies."
"Some researchers criticized the 'one-nudge-for-all' approach and advocated for more studies and implementations of personalized nudging (based on individual differences)."
"Personalized nudging appears to be substantially more effective, with a more robust and consistent evidence base."
"Several nudge units exist around the world at the international level (e.g. World Bank, UN, and the European Commission)."
"It has influenced British and American politicians."
"Nudge theory proposes adaptive designs of the decision environment (choice architecture) as ways to influence behavior and decision-making."
"Nudge theory aims to influence the behavior and decision-making of groups or individuals."
"It is disputed whether 'nudge theory' is a recent novel development in behavioral economics or merely a new term for one of many methods for influencing behavior."
"Nudge theory aims to improve decisions related to health, wealth, and happiness."
"Nudges have been found to have weaker effects in unpublished studies compared to effects found in published studies."