Nudges Flashcards
What is a nudge?
Any aspect of the choice architecture that alters people’s behaviour in a predictable way without forbidding any options or significantly changing economic incentives
How do nudges work?
They use choice architecture to help people make better choices often by improving people‘s use of heuristics
Information processing?
There are two systems for processing info
- Systematic: slow, deliberate, analytical
- Heuristic: fast, automatic, short cuts in decision making
What are the different types of heuristics?
Representativeness heuristic
Availability heuristic
Status quo bias
Sunk cost bias
How to promote good mapping of choices
Present information and choices clearly
Provide feedback
Provide useful default options
How do you present information and choices clearly
You can present it visually to show proper results
Encourages systematic processing
Helps people to understand the options
How do you give feedback about choices
Give information about good versus bad outcomes for choices and let them know when they are making a choice even if they aren’t aware
How do you use default settings to influence choices
Relates to the status quo bias and availability heuristic - People make decisions based on whatever is available and comes readily to mind
We have a tendency to leave things the way they are to maintain the status quo we are if we are offered a default choice we often go with that unless there is a good reason not to
How do social norms influence choice
You rely on what other people might do in the situation
An example of this was the reusing hotel towels to save water example when stated that fellow guests did it they were more likely then if they were just to say they were saving the environment
What is edge-aversion?
People often avoid the edges when choosing from arrays
People also tended to guess from the centre location regardless of setting.
Occurs in eyewitness identification tasks
What happens if we don’t have enough information to make choices?
We look for cues that are valid
So why do people pick places in the centre? How can we fix this?
Some locations are perceived as better hiding places as the further from the edges of the corners
we can reduce this by making all locations equally distant from the edges and the corners
What is an additional reason for sticking with the default?
People infer that policy makers are recommending the default option and deviations from this feel like losses
What is the example of a nudge for energy conservation?
They sent letters of usage with comparisons to neighbours. This harnesses competition and social norms.
Cost of nudges?
Are more cost effective than other strategies
