Nudging

Sometimes all that people need is a gentle push in the right direction. In behavioral psychology, this gentle push is referred to as a “nudge”. According to Thaler and Sunstein (2008) a nudge is:

“any aspect of the choice architecture that alters people’s behavior in a predictable way without forbidding any options or significantly changing their economic incentives. To count as a mere nudge, the intervention must be easy and cheap to avoid. Nudges are not mandates. Putting the fruit at eye level counts as a nudge. Banning junk food does not.”

Nudges try to influence automatically and unconscious behavior, but make sure that people still have the freedom to choose other behavior. After some successes of the Behavioral Insights Team, they have proven that simple stimuli can guide people into certain behavior. They found that making a specific object more striking and visible can be enough.

The Behavioral Insights Team came up with the EAST approach, in which they state the main principles of influencing behavior. The E stands for “easy”: avoid all (big ánd small) obstructions. The A stands for “attractive”: if things are attractive, it makes people more willing to take action. The S stands for “social”: with everything we do, we tend to keep an eye on if it’s socially acceptable or not. And at last, the T stands for “timely”: give people the right message at the right time.

These main principles can help us by designing a final product that will nudge people on the beach towards trowing their trash in the trashcans. But still, knowledge of these principles doesn’t guarantee succes. That’s why it’s important to keep testing our ideas and keep experimenting with new ideas, and learn from the old designs to create new, more effective designs on the long term.

Here are some examples of effective nudging, to visualize the theorie: