3 - Nudges in practice

Summary

Armed with our knowledge of the emergence and development of nudging as a set of concepts and principles deployed by governments, corporations and designers, it is time to turn our attention to the practical application of nudging in different geographical and sectoral contexts. Geographically, the spread of nudging has been impressive. According to an OECD (2017) report, behavioural insights are being applied within public policy in over 200 public bodies throughout the world. The sectoral spread of the use of behavioural insights has been equally impressive. From relatively humble beginnings, behavioural and psychological insights are now being used to influence policy development and delivery in relation to a wide variety of policy sectors, including pro-environmental behaviours, energy use, economic behaviour, voting and minority language promotion. There is no clearer indication of the current significance of nudging than the fact that it has become over a few short years since the publication of Thaler and Sunstein's 2008 book, a mainstay of the political and popular lexicon. Although the specific details might remain abstruse, few are now unaware of the broad meaning of nudging in policy contexts.

Such a proliferation of nudging begs a series of questions, and it is these that we shall seek to answer in this chapter. First, what explains the widespread appeal of nudging? Why has it become such a popular approach to addressing different kinds of problematic behaviour? Why now? Or, in other words, what have been the specific conditions that explain the remarkable uptake of nudging principles and practices from 2008 onwards? We discuss how the current appeal of nudging derives largely from its ability to act as a relatively low-cost, technocratic and, allegedly, politically neutral way of enabling organizations, including the state, to grapple with a series of modern-day challenges.

Second, what forms have contemporary examples of nudging taken in different geographical and sectoral contexts? Even though behavioural insights are now being employed across the world, are they more popular in certain jurisdictions than others? Is nudging more popular in particular policy sectors than others? Is nudging more effective as a way of addressing certain policy ills than others?