Nudge

Good book, an easy, short read. I finished it in a few days. It explains the idea of a “nudge,” a gentle push that steers people toward a choice and helps them without being heavy-handed. A key point is liberal paternalism, a strategy that tries to guide people (humans, full of biases) to make smarter choices through psychological techniques. For example, the default choice is often the one most people follow, out of inertia.

I will keep it brief: some psychological concepts are the same as in Thinking, Fast and Slow, like priming, loss aversion, and status quo bias. The book suggests ways to use them for good, such as anti-smoking campaigns that say 80% do not smoke, so you are nudged to follow the crowd, or setting a useful pension fund as the default option.

My takeaway is that the average person makes many mistakes and is penalized by having many choices, especially in complex, rare scenarios; at the same time, “forcing” things by offering few choices is not always welcome or possible. This financial paternalism “guides” through default options and other techniques but still leaves freedom, and it seems like a reasonable compromise.

When it proposes privatizing marriage, it felt a bit extreme, but otherwise I liked it. Maybe a bit light, though I will remember much of its content.