Lecture 1

Question 1

What kind of method is nudging?

Answer 1

A method for behaviour change.

There are a lot of behaviour change interventions, nudging is just one of them.

Question 2

Hoe was nudging introduced?

Answer 2

It was coined as a term in 2008 as a new type of behaviour change.

Question 3

As a psychologist you can use behaviour change for a lot of things: therapy, prevention programs, an educational program. What is the common denominator in all these types of behaviour change methods? And how is nudging different?

Answer 3

• They are costly
• They take a long time
• People need to be open in order to change
• People are consciously aware of trying to change their behaviour.

Consciously processing information that is being fed to you about your behaviour that you are trying to change. This is where nudging is different.

Question 4

What is different about nudging?

Answer 4

Nudging is different because it relies on different systems with which we think.

Question 5

System 2

Answer 5

The slow relational system

Can be described as using algorithms to solve a decision

• Algorithm: logical, methodical, step-by-step procedure that eventually guarantees a solution, but may be slow to work through.
• (e.g., Dr. Spock from Star Trek)

Question 6

System 1

Answer 6

The fast and impulsive system

Can be described as using heuristics to solve a decision

• (e.g., Homer Simpson)

We use system 1 more often than we use system 2

Question 7

What is true about the folowing terms: mental shorcuts/cognitive biases/heuristics?

Answer 7

These terms are often used interchangeably in literature to describe the same thing.

Question 8

History of nudging

Answer 8

Nudging is coined as a new thing, but is based on older psychological theories from the seventies (e.g., Kahneman).

Question 9

Shortcuts

Answer 9

We use shortcuts a lot to perceive the world around us.

Some we use to perceive the world and some we use to perceive/judge ourselves.

Question 10

What mental shortcut(s) do we use to perceive the world?

Answer 10

The cheerleader effect

The clustering illusion

Question 11

What mental shortcut(s) do we use to perceive/judge ourselves?

Answer 11

The IKEA effect

The planning fallacy

The GI Joe effect

Question 12

Cheerleader effect

Answer 12

A shortcut to perceive the world.

We assess the average attractiveness in the group instead of assessing all the individual faces. All the people in the group get assigned the same attractiveness.

For some people this is beneficial, for others it’s not.

It takes too much time to assess every person individually.

It’s been done with faces and more abstract things. We use these shortcuts to perceive the world quicker.

Question 13

Clustering illusion

Answer 13

A cognitive bias to perceive the world.

When you perceive patterns or clusters in random data, even when there is no actual pattern or clustering present.

Question 14

IKEA effect

Answer 14

A shortcut to perceive/judge ourselves.

People from the street estimate themselves to be just as good as an IKEA employee when building IKEA furniture.

If you put something together yourself, you give it more value.

Usually you are overestimating yourself and underestimating other people.

Question 15

Planning fallacy

Answer 15

A shortcut to perceive/judge ourselves.

The tendency you have to overestimate your own ability to get from A to B and to underestimate others to do the same thing.

Question 16

GI Joe effect

Answer 16

“Now we know our biases and are better to combat them!” This is a bias on its own.

Knowing your biases doesn’t help you combat them. This is partly because you don’t always know that you have a bias. You overestimate yourself.

Question 17

Are biases a bad thing?

Answer 17

There are cognitive biases that sometimes lead to suboptimal choices (bad/unhealthy/unsafe decisions).

But if we use those same biases for good this is nudging.

Question 18

What is a nudge?

Answer 18

Any aspect of the choice architecture that alters people’s behaviour in a predictable way without forbidding any options or significantly changing their economic incentives.

Also people shouldn’t change the amount of effort taken for making the choice.

Question 19

Choice architecture

Answer 19

The way the choice is presented.

Question 20

What is the problem with nudges based on cognitive biases?

Answer 20

Relying on cognitive biases is system 1, and system 1 happens quite unconsciously. People then start to feel a bit iffy about nudging. Unconscious, unaware processes steering people’s behaviour. That’s taking away freedom, right?

Question 21

Libertarian paternalism

Answer 21

Don’t forbid choices.

Changing the way the choice is presented and how someone responds to it could be seen as paternalizing/patronizing, but it should be libertarian, people should still have the same choices.

Question 22

Is making unhealthy food more expensive a nudge?

Answer 22

No, it’s not

Question 23

Is the following a nudge?

Putting the healthy options on eye level

Answer 23

In this example, the options are at a different height, therefore people have to bend their knees if they want a certain product when they didn’t hve to before. So they have to change the amount of effort for making a choice.

Therefore this is not a nudge.

Question 24

What types of choices should we nudge?

Answer 24

Choices where the relationship between the choice and the outcome are unclear.

Choices that:

• Have a delayed (positive) effect
  o Eating healthy is a delayed effect, you want the unhealthy food right now.
• Are difficult
• Are infrequent
• Have poor feedback on the outcome
• Have an unclear outcome

Choices that are difficult or infrequent, take time because you can’t predict what the outcome will be. You don’t always have the time to do this. Choices that are infrequent are difficult.

Question 25

Is the following advertising of Coolblue a nudge? “Coolblue’s best choice: Our washing machine that takes up the least amount of space”

Answer 25

Not sure if this is a nudge because they try to sell you something, so there might be alternatives motives.

Question 26

What makes a good nudge?

Answer 26

You always want to make a choice easy.

Non-complex choice structure – make choice-outcome clear
Understand mapping – understand people’s choice-outcome coupling
Defaults – make use of laziness shortcuts
Give feedback – make choice result clear
Expect error – by foreseeing shortcuts people will use (see laziness)
Salient incentives – make the desired choice clearly rewarding

Question 27

What does every nudge need?

Answer 27

Every nudge that you design needs its own thought process, diving into what the choice is, what the motivation for the choice is and what heuristics take place. It’s really context dependent.