The Choice Architecture of Choice Architecture: Toward a Nonpaternalistic Nudge Policy

This The goal of nudge policy is generally presented as assisting people in finding their “true” preferences. Supporters argue that nudge policies meet a libertarian paternalism criterion. This claim has provoked complaints that nudge policies are unacceptably paternalistic. This paper suggests that by changing the explicit goal of nudge policy to a goal of making the choice of choice mechanism an explicit decision variable of the subgroup being affected by the nudge one can have a non-paternalistic nudge policy that better fits with the values inherent in Classical liberalism. The goal of non-paternalistic nudge policy is not to achieve a better result as seen by government or by behavioral economists. The goal of non-paternalistic nudge policy is to achieve a better result as seen by the agents being nudged as revealed through their choices of choice mechanisms. Examples are given of how nonpaternalistic nudge policy will and will not differ from paternalistic nudge policy.libertarian, paternalism, nudge policy, choice architecture, behavioral economics

Rethinking Nudge: Not One But Three Concepts

Nudge is a concept of policy intervention that originates in Thaler and Sunstein's (2008) popular eponymous book. Following their own hints, we distinguish three properties of nudge interventions: they redirect individual choices by only slightly altering choice conditions (here nudge 1), they use rationality failures instrumentally (here nudge 2), and they alleviate the unfavourable effects of these failures (here nudge 3). We explore each property in semantic detail and show that no entailment relation holds between them. This calls into question the theoretical unity of nudge, as intended by Thaler and Sunstein and most followers. We eventually recommend pursuing each property separately, both in policy research and at the foundational level. We particularly emphasize the need of reconsidering the respective roles of decision theory and behavioural economics to delineate nudge 2 correctly. The paper differs from most of the literature in focusing on the definitional rather than the normative problems of nudge

Nudge, nudge, think, think: experimenting with ways to change civic behaviour

Peter John‘s recent book investigates how to get the best out of nudge theories, considering positive behaviour changes in recycling, volunteering, voting, and petitioning, and provides some unexpected insights about some interventions, finds Sander van der Linden. Nudge, Nudge, Think, Think: Experimenting with Ways to Change Civic Behaviour. Peter John, Sarah Cotterill, Alice Moseley, Liz Richardson, Graham Smith, Gerry Stoker and Corinne Wales. Bloomsbury Academic Publishing. September 2011

Guidelines for ethical nudging in password authentication

Nudging has been adopted by many disciplines in the last decade in order to achieve behavioural change. Information security is no exception. A number of attempts have been made to nudge end-users towards stronger passwords. Here we report on our deployment of an enriched nudge displayed to participants on the system enrolment page, when a password has to be chosen. The enriched nudge was successful in that participants chose significantly longer and stronger passwords. One thing that struck us as we designed and tested this nudge was that we were unable to find any nudge-specific ethical guidelines to inform our experimentation in this context. This led us to reflect on the ethical implications of nudge testing, specifically in the password authentication context. We mined the nudge literature and derived a number of core principles of ethical nudging. We tailored these to the password authentication context, and then show how they can be applied by assessing the ethics of our own nudge. We conclude with a set of preliminary guidelines derived from our study to inform other researchers planning to deploy nudge-related techniques in this context

The Choice Architecture of Choice Architecture: Toward a Non-Paternalistic Nudge Policy

The paper seeks to recast the goal of nudge policy from a goal of achieving a specific result determined by government or by behavioral economists to a goal of giving individuals as much power as is practical to decide the choice architecture they face. We call a nudge with such a giving individuals “power over choice mechanisms” goal a non-paternalistic nudge policy. The goal of nonpaternalistic nudge policy is not to achieve a better result as seen by government or by behavioral economists. The goal of non-paternalistic nudge policy is to achieve a better result as seen by the agents being nudged as revealed through their choices of choice architectures. We argue that non-paternalistic nudge policy fits much better with the values inherent in Classical liberalism than does libertarian paternalistic nudge policy.

Creative approaches to mental health: a critical analysis of the mindfulness agenda in Sussex

Mindfulness is a packaged intervention with current popularity in East Sussex, and this study explores how it is embedded in mental health services, the processes of the gathering and presentation of evidence, how the experience of patients is organizationally shaped and the importance of indirect interventions. These forms of interventions are what has been termed ‘choice architecture’ by proponents of the ‘nudge agenda’, describing the way that decisions and behaviour are influenced by how the choices are presented or designed . I want to explore the feasibility of applying indirect interventions to mindfulness in order to increase take-up rates, evaluative mechanisms and follow-up support, based on the patient perspective. Mindfulness-based cognitive therapy (MBCT) was recommended by NICE in their guidelines in 2004, was brought fully into the mainstream and has now been specifically adapted for psychosis. My research is on the interaction between mindfulness as an innovative therapy, a marginalised group of people who experience psychosis, and the currently popular behavioural economics (nudge) agenda. The nudge agenda is being promoted on the basis of cost-effectiveness, the aptness of its ideology to the current political climate, and its evidence base in particular case studies. The use of creative indirect interventions such as nudge, ‘when carefully crafted and applied’, can be ‘a positive means of communication between physician and patient’

Effect of two behavioural 'nudging' interventions on management decisions for low back pain: A randomised vignette-based study in general practitioners

Objective €Nudges' are subtle cognitive cues thought to influence behaviour. We investigated whether embedding nudges in a general practitioner (GP) clinical decision support display can reduce low-value management decisions. Methods Australian GPs completed four clinical vignettes of patients with low back pain. Participants chose from three guideline-concordant and three guideline-discordant (low-value) management options for each vignette, on a computer screen. A 2×2 factorial design randomised participants to two possible nudge interventions: €partition display' nudge (low-value options presented horizontally, high-value options listed vertically) or €default option' nudge (high-value options presented as the default, low-value options presented only after clicking for more). The primary outcome was the proportion of scenarios where practitioners chose at least one of the low-value care options. Results 120 GPs (72% male, 28% female) completed the trial (n=480 vignettes). Participants using a conventional menu display without nudges chose at least one low-value care option in 42% of scenarios. Participants exposed to the default option nudge were 44% less likely to choose at least one low-value care option (OR 0.56, 95%CI 0.37 to 0.85; p=0.006) compared with those not exposed. The partition display nudge had no effect on choice of low-value care (OR 1.08, 95%CI 0.72 to 1.64; p=0.7). There was no interaction between the nudges (OR 0.94, 95% CI 0.41 to 2.15; p=0.89). Interpretation A default option nudge reduced the odds of choosing low-value options for low back pain in clinical vignettes. Embedding high value options as defaults in clinical decision support tools could improve quality of care. More research is needed into how nudges impact clinical decision-making in different contexts

A döntési helyzetek tudatos tervezésének háttere. A nudge fogalma, módszerei és kritikái

Richard Thaler és Cass Sunstein nudge-ról szóló könyve alig tíz évvel ezelőtt, 2008-ban jelent meg, de a meghatározó munka mára számos kutatást eredményezett, a döntéstervezés újabb és újabb kísérleteiről jelentek meg tudományos beszámolók. Egyre több konferenciát rendeznek a témakörben, sőt egyes országok, mint például Nagy-Britannia, a nudge-okat egyenesen a kormányzati politikák részévé emelték. A témában született nagyszámú publikáció jelentős része mindemellett kritikusan áll hozzá az új eszközhöz, a nudge koncepciója igen hamar politikai, filozófiai és etikai viták össztüzében találta magát. A szerzők cikkükben szisztematikusan feltárják a nudge körüli szakirodalmat, osztályozzák különböző megvalósulási formáit, bemutatják a szakpolitikai vonatkozásokat, és kitérnek a nudge-ok alkalmazását ért kritikákra is

Ethical guidelines for nudging in information security & privacy

There has recently been an upsurge of interest in the deployment of behavioural economics techniques in the information security and privacy domain. In this paper, we consider first the nature of one particular intervention, the nudge, and the way it exercises its influence. We contemplate the ethical ramifications of nudging, in its broadest sense, deriving general principles for ethical nudging from the literature. We extrapolate these principles to the deployment of nudging in information security and privacy. We explain how researchers can use these guidelines to ensure that they satisfy the ethical requirements during nudge trials in information security and privacy. Our guidelines also provide guidance to ethics review boards that are required to evaluate nudge-related research