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There is an interesting debate going on about how to get people to comply with rules, policies and even just things that are good for their health.  Over Christmas I read the book “Nudge: Improving Decisions About Health, Wealth, and Happiness” by Richard Thaler and Cass Sunstein. It is a great book which looks at the psychology behind decision making – and why we decide the things that we do.

The basic approach in the book is if we know how people think, we can then change the conditions to make it easier for people to choose what is best for themselves and society, in effect we nudge people to do what is right. The book covers off the issue of whether or not this is “big brother” or even whether this is ethical, (but in my thinking it is still a very uneasy relationship and one that merits further debate).

Some practical examples may help clarify some of the ideas.

• Organ donors are in short supply. If you want to increase the rate of organ donors, then make it mandatory that all organs will be donated unless people tick the box on their drivers license NOT to donate their organs instead of the approach at present of ticking if you do want to donate your organs.
• If you want to boost your savings, create a savings plan where you start by saving a very small amount and then automatically increase it by a small amount every few months (say 2%).
• If you want to reduce the number of cars whose batteries go flat by leaving the lights on, then have auto darkness sensing headlights that turn off when the engine is turned off ( I have this in my new car and love it).

These are not Micky Mouse ideas. They work on the concept of people being in unless they take specific action to get out, or out unless they take specific action to get in. And they get brilliant results!

Bigger examples being discussed are the review of the tax system in Australia & the US, where potentially everyone gets the same sized refund unless they fill in a form (which will do away with many hundreds of thousands of tax returns each year). In Australia we have mandatory voting, in the US it’s optional – guess who has the better voting turn out?

Of course, this type of thinking has been in use for years with the direct mail and internet marketing community. You receive a magazine each month and your account is debited until you stop the debit. You try a membership site for a low fee (or free) and at the end of the period your account is debited for $x each month until you stop. You are in unless you take action to get out.

In the past spammers (and many businesses) used this approach to get email addresses. Sign up for this competition and tick the box if you DON’T want your details to be shared with 4 million other businesses.  The ACCC has taken a dim view of this approach and now requires all people to be out unless they specifically opt in.

The thing is this approach works brilliantly for both good and less virtuous applications.  When you start to look around you, you will see an increase in number of “Nudge” approaches being adopted by government and business.

The question is – do you agree? How do you guard yourself against less than positive nudges? It would certainly pay to buy or borrow a copy of Nudge, read the Nudge blog and start to become conscious of the nudges in your life.

Until next time

Ingrid Cliff

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Heart Harmony – Freelance Copywriter