Nudge and the Manipulation of Choice. A Framework for the Responsible Use of Nudge Approach to Behaviour Change in Public Policy

Hansen, Pelle G. and Jespersen, Andreas M., Nudge and the Manipulation of Choice: A Framework for the Responsible Use of the Nudge Approach to Behaviour Change in Public Policy, European Journal of Risk Regulation, 2013 (1), p.3-28

26 Pages Posted: 5 Feb 2015

See all articles by Pelle Guldborg Hansen

Pelle Guldborg Hansen

Roskilde University - Department of Communication, Business and Information Technologies

Andreas Jespersen

Roskilde University - Department of Communication, Business and Information Technologies

Date Written: December 01, 2013

Abstract

In Nudge (2008) Richard Thaler and Cass Sunstein suggested that public policy-makers arrange decision-making contexts in ways to promote behaviour change in the interest of individual citizens as well as that of society. However, in the public sphere and Academia alike widespread discussions have appeared concerning the public acceptability of nudge based behavioural policy. Thaler and Sunstein’s own position is that the anti-nudge position is a literal non-starter, because citizens are always influenced by the decision making context anyway, and nudging is liberty preserving and acceptable if guided by Libertarian Paternalism and Rawls’ publicity principle.

A persistent and central tenet in the criticism disputing the acceptability of the approach is that nudging works by manipulating citizens’ choices.

In this paper, we argue that both lines of argumentation are seriously flawed. We show how the anti-nudge position is not a literal non-starter due to the responsibilities that accrue on policy-makers by the intentional intervention in citizens’ life, how nudging is not essentially liberty preserving and why the approach is not necessarily acceptable even if satisfying Rawls’ publicity principle. We then use the psychological dual process theory underlying the approach as well as an epistemic transparency criterion identified by Thaler and Sunstein themselves to show that nudging is not necessarily about “manipulation”, nor necessarily about influencing “choice”.

The result is a framework identifying four types of nudges that may be used to provide a central component for more nuanced normative considerations as well as a basis for policy recommendations.

Keywords: Nudge, Behavioral Economics, Public Policy, Ethics

JEL Classification: D63, A00, D81, H00, H10

Suggested Citation

Hansen, Pelle Guldborg and Jespersen, Andreas, Nudge and the Manipulation of Choice. A Framework for the Responsible Use of Nudge Approach to Behaviour Change in Public Policy (December 01, 2013). Hansen, Pelle G. and Jespersen, Andreas M., Nudge and the Manipulation of Choice: A Framework for the Responsible Use of the Nudge Approach to Behaviour Change in Public Policy, European Journal of Risk Regulation, 2013 (1), p.3-28 , Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2555337

Pelle Guldborg Hansen (Contact Author)

Roskilde University - Department of Communication, Business and Information Technologies ( email )

Universitetsvej 1, Building 42-3
P.O. Box 260
Roskilde, DK-4000
Denmark

Andreas Jespersen

Roskilde University - Department of Communication, Business and Information Technologies ( email )

Universitetsvej 1, Building 42-3
P.O. Box 260
Roskilde, DK-4000
Denmark

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