How Nudge Theory Can Help You (and Others) Make Better Choices
You want to eat healthy food, but you can’t stop eating unhealthy food every time you’re hungry. You want your kids to fold and put away their clothes, but you’re tired of asking and reminding them 27 times a day. (And you also don’t want to create a colorful “reward table” where they get prizes for doing the bare minimum.) You’d like your spouse to remember to do the dishes, but you don’t want to grumble. (Wow. You’re good.)
It turns out there’s a way to get people (and yourself) to do more of what you need and want to do without beating them up with the sound of your voice. This is called push theory.
What is push theory?
Nudge theory, a term developed and coined by Richard Thaler , a professor of economics and behavioral sciences at the University of Chicago, is the practice of shaping one’s environment or its “choice architecture” in order to induce people to make a certain decision. Nudges use small, subtle reminders and indirect suggestions to influence behavior rather than ultimatums, obvious incentives, or strong coercion.
However, the key to the effectiveness of the nudge is that the person being nudged does not perceive any limitations in their abilities. It needs to be subtle – and they need to ” keep free to choose and feel in control of the decisions they make .” As stated in his 2008 bookNudge: Improving Decisions About Health, Wealth, and Happiness , co-written with Cass Sunstein:
A nudge, as we will use the term, is any aspect of a choice architecture that changes people’s behavior in a predictable way without forbidding any options or significantly changing their economic incentives. To be considered a simple nudge, the intervention must be easy and cheap to avoid. Nudges are not mandates. Placing fruit at eye level is considered a nudge. Prohibition of junk food – no.”
(Fun fact: one famous example of a nudge is the “urinal target,” a picture of a fly or bee engraved inside the urinal to ” encourage users to aim at a specific spot .” by a gentleman named Thomas Crapper from England – and yes, that’s why the toilet got it’s a nickname.)
How to push yourself to make better decisions
To apply nudge theory in your own life, think about small changes you can make to your environment to steer yourself (or others) towards the decision you would like (them) to make. Visual cues often help. Want to start running more? Put your sneakers by the door. Want to remind yourself of cycling? Hang your bike on the wall at eye level. Want to eat healthier? Don’t hide this fruit – place it in the middle of your kitchen island to make it more likely you’ll grab a banana in front of a bag of Cheetos.
How to push others
When it comes to influencing the behavior of others, Cathy Milkman , a behavioral scientist at the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania, advises acting early. “Telling your partner in the morning to go to the store in the afternoon won’t be very effective, but texting him as soon as he gets in the car after work will, ” she told CNN .
Milkman also advocates reminders, including “planning tips,” forcing people to make statements “specifically when, where, and how you’ll get there” to increase fulfillment. As a parent, I’m happy to hear when my daughter puts off her homework or piano lessons, and I, masquerading as a complaisant and understanding parent, say, “OK, what time are you doing this? And how will you remind yourself? “I’m not just annoying. (Well, probably yes , but at least according to an Ivy League behavioral scientist, it’s effective .)
And it also works to prevent certain behaviors. If you want to push yourself into not doing something, create small barriers between yourself and the behavior you want to reduce. If you want to stop checking your phone every five minutes, put it on a high shelf in another room. If a company wants its employees to drink more water, they will put it next to the cash register and move the soda to a hard-to-reach place. (See here for more examples of effective nudges.)
Make your choice ahead of time
Milkman adds, “We think very differently when we make choices now versus later.” Tomorrow we want to practice, and tonight we only need pizza and a remote control. Since we tend to want to do things better and healthier for ourselves in the future, it helps to push people (including ourselves) to make decisions early. Meal plan for Sunday, sign up for a gym class a few days in advance. This will cause people to behave more in line with their long-term intentions, rather than what they just want right now.