Nudge

Common "Nudges"

1. The design of menus gets you to eat (and spend) more. For example, lining up all prices on either side of the menu leads many consumers to simply pick the cheapest item. On the other hand, discretely listing prices at the end of food descriptions lets people read about the appetizing options first ; and then see prices.
2. "Flies" in urinals improve, well, aim. When Amsterdam's Schiphol Airport was faced with the not uncommon issue of dirty urinals, they chose a unique solution: by painting "flies" in the (center of) commodes, men obligingly aimed at the insects, reducing spillage by 80 percent.
3. Credit card minimum payments affect repayment schedules. Among those who only partially pay off credit card balances each month, the repayment level is correlated with the card's minimum payment in other words, the lower the minimum payment, the longer it takes a consumer to pay off the card balance.
4. Automatic savings programs increase savings rate. All over the country, companies are adopting the Save More Tomorrow program: firms offer employees who are not saving very much the option of joining a program in which their saving rates are automatically increased whenever they get a raise. This plan has more than tripled saving rates in some firms, and is now offered by thousands of employers.
5. "Defaults" can improve rates of organ donation. In the United States, about one third of citizens have signed organ donor cards. Compare this to Austria, where 99 percent of people are potential organ donors. One obvious difference? Americans must explicitly consent to become organ donors (by signing forms, for example) while Austrians must opt out if they do not want to be organ donors.

NudgeAcknowledgments
Introduction


Part I: Humans and Econs


1. Biases and Blunders
2. Resisting Temptation
3. Following the Herd
4.When Do We Need a Nudge?
5. Choice Architecture


Part II: Money


6. Save More Tomorrow
7. Naive Investing
8. Credit Markets
9. Privatizing Social Security: Smorgasbord Style


Part III: Health


10. Prescription Drugs: Part D for Daunting
11. How to Increase Organ Donations
12. Saving the Planet


Part IV: Freedom


13. Improving School Choices
14. Should Patients Be Forced to Buy Lottery Tickets?
15. Privatizing Marriage


Part V: Extensions and Objections


16. A Dozen Nudges
17. Objections
18. The Real Third Way
19. Bonus Chapter: Twenty More Nudges
Postscript: November 2008
Notes
Bibliography
Index

Richard H. Thaler was awarded the 2017 Nobel Prize in Economics. He is the Charles R. Walgreen Distinguished Service Professor of Behavioral Science and Economics at the University of Chicago s Booth School of Business, where he is the director of the Center for Decision Research. He is also the co-director (with Robert Shiller) of the Behavioral Economics Project at the National Bureau of Economic Research and in 2015 was the president of the American Economic Association. He has been published in several prominent journals and is the author of a number of books, including Misbehaving: The Making of Behavioral Economics.
 
Cass R. Sunstein is the Robert Walmsley University Professor at Harvard Law School, where he is the founder and director of the Program on Behavioral Economics and Public Policy. He is by far the most cited law professor in the United States. From 2009 to 2012 he served in the Obama administration as Administrator of the White House Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs. He has testified before congressional committees, appeared on national television and radio shows, been involved in constitution-making and law reform activities in a number of nations, and written many articles and books, including Simpler: The Future of Government, Wiser: Getting Beyond Groupthink to Make Groups Smarter, The World According to Star Wars, and Impeachment: A Citizen's Guide. He is the recipient of the 2018 Holberg Prize, awarded annually to a scholar who has made outstanding contributions to research in the arts, humanities, the social sciences, law, or theology.

One of The Strategist  s 13 Best Personal Finance Books, According to Money Experts

One of the few books . . . that fundamentally changed the way I think about the world.   Steven D. Levitt, coauthor of Freakonomics

Engaging and insightful . . . The conceptual argument is powerful, and most of the authors suggestions are common sense at its best. . . . For that we should all applaud loudly. The New York Times Book Review

An essential read . . . The book isn t only humorous, it s loaded with good ideas that financial-service executives, policy makers, Wall Street mavens, and all savers can use. The Boston Globe
 
This book is terrific. It will change the way you think, not only about the world around you and some of its bigger problems, but also about yourself.   Michael Lewis, author of Moneyball and Liar s Poker

This gem of a book . . . is a must-read for anyone who wants to see both our minds and our society working better. It will improve your decisions and it will make the world a better place. Daniel Kahneman, Nobel Prize winning author of Thinking, Fast and Slow
 
Utterly brilliant . . . Nudge won t nudge you it will knock you off your feet.   Daniel Gilbert, author of Stumbling on Happiness

Nudge is as important a book as any I ve read in perhaps twenty years. It is a book that people interested in any aspect of public policy should read. It is a book that people interested in politics should read. It is a book that people interested in ideas about human freedom should read. It is a book that people interested in promoting human welfare should read. If you re not interested in any of these topics, you can read something else.   Barry Schwartz, The American Prospect
 
Engaging, informative, and thoroughly delightful.