Are we viewing nudging as too WEIRD?
One of the most common ‘dad jokes’ that I’ve been told as a psychology student, is that psychology conducts too many WEIRD studies- that is studies based on Western, Educated, Industrialised, Rich and Democratic (WEIRD) societies¹ While the statement can lead to a few chuckles in a lecture hall, the crisis and implications associated to it, is no joke. The Western perspective of psychology, and even behavioural science, has limited the scope of our research and interventions.
Does this mean we are a little too focused on WEIRD ‘nudging’ too?
While a ‘nudge’ may seem like a foreign term to many, most of us have already seen and interacted with them, from the warning messages on cigarette packets, to the calorie count next to our favourite Starbucks drinks. In simple terms, a nudge can be defined as any alteration in our environment which causes a predictable behaviour change² without forbidding any options. For example, going back to the warnings on cigarette packets, the nudge deters individuals from smoking, not by removing cigarettes, but rather by disclosing the risk associated with tobacco. Nudges can be useful to ‘make things easy’ during overly complex situations in which we utilise our System 1- our fast and automatic thinking processes- at the risk of making suboptimal decisions.² While it is clear that nudges can be used to alter behaviour, what is argued in the field is whether nudges always work in the same way in different cultures, cultures that aren’t based on WEIRD individuals.
Being what can best be described as a ‘Third-culture kid’, I’ve always been curious about the cross-cultural application of many behavioural science insights. While the techniques of nudging are thought to be universal because they can be used for any imaginable purpose in both the private and public sphere³, studies suggest that they — like the behavioural insights they take inspiration from — are subject to cultural variability.
An applied example
Let’s look at an example of this in a field where multiple nudges have already been employed: climate change. While research on sustainability behaviours suggests that in theory increasing individuals’ environmental concerns through nudges will increase pro-environmental behaviour, in practicality this relationship is dependent on whether the intervention was applied in an individualistic culture or not.⁴ An individualistic culture is a society in which the emphasis is on the individual rather than the entire group, whereas a collectivistic culture is the opposite. For example, in a collectivistic culture, I would define myself as a daughter, sister and/or friend, rather than as a single unattached entity. When comparing individualistic and collectivistic nations such as the United States versus Japan, culture-specific predictors of pro-environmental behaviour were found. While environmental concern was predictive of pro-environmental choices in the European-American sample, in the Japanese sample, norm perception seemed to the main predictor of pro-environmental decision making. Therefore, it is clear that a nudge cannot be ‘globally’ applied; the culture of the target audience is key to understanding how it should be employed, and thus its success.
Unearthing opportunity
While it is important to take culture into account when applying nudges- it is as important to highlight how this cross-cultural variability can be used to our advantage. Cultural variability such as unique religious or cultural holidays, can be exploited to employ specific nudge interventions. An example of this has been employed in Qatar, where diabetes screenings are offered during the Holy Month of Ramadan, during which Muslims fast anyway- leading to an increased uptake of screenings⁵. Indeed, defining unique cultural features can give rise to culture-specific nudges- and thus more successful policy implications.
It’s evident that it’s time to move away from this idea that cross-cultural generalisability is simply an ‘accuracy check’ and move towards the notion that diversity is an advantage. Working with, rather than against different cultural landscape forces us to account for more than just a WEIRD population, and thus to learn more about the intricacies of behavioural science’s darling: nudging.
Nadia is a graduate from the University of Cambridge, and a current student in the Department of Psychological and Behavioural Science at LSE, studying MSc Behavioural Science.
Notes:
¹ Rad, Martingano, and Ginges, 2018
²Thaler and Sunstein, 2008
⁵The Economist International, 2017
Written by: Nadia Bahemia
