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Six principles of good choice architecture:
iNcentives
Understand mappings
Defaults
Give feedback
Expect error
Structure complex choic... (show more)
Nudge: Improving Decisions About Health, Wealth, and Happiness
Every day, we make decisions on topics ranging from personal investments to schools for our children to the meals we eat to the causes we champion. Unfortunately, we often choose poorly. The reason, the authors explain, is that, being human, we all are susceptible to various biases that can lead us to blunder. Our mistakes make us poorer and less healthy; we often make bad decisions involving education, personal finance, health care, mortgages and credit cards, the family, and even the planet... (show more)
Every day, we make decisions on topics ranging from personal investments to schools for our children to the meals we eat to the causes we champion. Unfortunately, we often choose poorly. The reason, the authors explain, is that, being human, we all are susceptible to various biases that can lead us to blunder. Our mistakes make us poorer and less healthy; we often make bad decisions involving education, personal finance, health care, mortgages and credit cards, the family, and even the planet itself.
Thaler and Sunstein invite us to enter an alternative world, one that takes our humanness as a given. They show that by knowing how people think, we can design choice environments that make it easier for people to choose what is best for themselves, their families, and their society. Using colorful examples from the most important aspects of life, Thaler and Sunstein demonstrate how thoughtful “choice architecture” can be established to nudge us in beneficial directions without restricting freedom of choice. Nudge offers a unique new take—from neither the left nor the right—on many hot-button issues, for individuals and governments alike. This is one of the most engaging and provocative books to come along in many years.
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Libro que prometía mucho y se quedo en una promesa nunca concretada. El argumento del libro es simple. Los individuos tienen un sistema de pensamie... (show more)
Libro que prometía mucho y se quedo en una promesa nunca concretada. El argumento del libro es simple. Los individuos tienen un sistema de pensamiento basada en dos aspectos: el automático y el reflexivo:
El automático se basa en la capacidad de los individuos en solucionar problemas de forma instantánea sin necesidad de elucubraciones previas, esto es hacer funcionar los automatismos internos de cada uno que funciona de forma instintiva de acuerdo a unos parámetros preestablecidos en nuestra base de conocimiento.
El reflexivo sería aquel pensamiento que requiera una meditación, es decir, una auto consciencia de pensamiento para lograr una posterior y adecuada actuación. Los autores intentan demostrar que con cambios sutiles se pueden producir grandes efectos jugando a cambiar nuestras actuaciones en nuestro pensamiento automático.
Así, los autores crean el llamado libertario paternalismo como una potencial actuación de mejorar nuestras vidas cambiando pequeñas cosas dejando abierta la puerta de nuestra decisión.
Cabe decir que, en la mayoría de las situaciones presentadas, no queda muy claro en dónde se encuentra el equilibrio entre aquello liberal y aquello auténticament paternalista. Así, parecen apoyar políticas de infantilización social y abusivas del poder yendo en detrimento de la libertad que, en la mayoría de casos, caracteriza nuestra sociedad.
En definitiva, se trata de un libro no recomendable. En la segunda página la idea ya está anunciada y todo dicho. Las 198 páginas restantes son totalmente suplementarias, con ejemplos y más ejemplos con un mismo objeto. (show less)
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I'm glad this book was advertised on fivethirtyeight.com or I wouldn't have known about it.
Book focuses on the concept of libertarian paternalism. As others have said, this seems to offer a middle point between the traditional options of "let the companies govern themselves" free-market conservative dogma of the Republicans and the "let's change behavior through rules" regulatory approach of the Democrats.
Before the examination of the different policy issues, such as ... (show more)
I'm glad this book was advertised on fivethirtyeight.com or I wouldn't have known about it.
Book focuses on the concept of libertarian paternalism. As others have said, this seems to offer a middle point between the traditional options of "let the companies govern themselves" free-market conservative dogma of the Republicans and the "let's change behavior through rules" regulatory approach of the Democrats.
Before the examination of the different policy issues, such as savings, investing, credit markets, social welfare, prescription drugs, organ donations, environment, school choice, medical malpractice, marriage, the books does an interesting job of covering the concept of choice architecture and why people make poor decisions.
It notes that people tend to trend towards inertia and accepting the default option, despite plenty of information that may explain why (an) alternative choice(s) might be much more beneficial.
Book recommends offering "nudges" that "alter people's behavior in a predictable way without forbidding any options or significantly changing their economic incentives. To count as a mere nudge, the intervention must be easy to avoid. Nudges are not mandates."
I also enjoyed how they brought in real-life examples of how libertarian paternalism has worked, rather than keeping it at an abstract, theoretical level.
I highly recommend this book. (show less)
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I admit I started the book arrogantly - I had decided that I understood the basic premise (that subtle changes can produce big behavioral effects), and that the book would be 200 pages of unnecessary supplementary support. From three pages in, I could see there was far more to the authors. Besides a compelling, almost page-turning writing style, they expand their basic idea in ways that are radical yet reasonable.
The true central theme is that we have two response systems working with... (show more)
I admit I started the book arrogantly - I had decided that I understood the basic premise (that subtle changes can produce big behavioral effects), and that the book would be 200 pages of unnecessary supplementary support. From three pages in, I could see there was far more to the authors. Besides a compelling, almost page-turning writing style, they expand their basic idea in ways that are radical yet reasonable.
The true central theme is that we have two response systems working within us, the automatic and the reflective. The automatic helps you catch a unexpected baseball; the reflective helps you answer the question "what was the best baseball game you ever watched?". Their elaboration is that the automatic system (AS) is incredibly easy to "game", to trick into different results. The AS is played with by marketers, politicians, and conmen - why not use these tricks and vulnerabilities to actually improve our lives? If most people want (consciously, using their reflective system) to weigh less, save more, and generally make better decisions, then let's make sure the automatic system doesn't sabotage those plans.
The system Thaler and Sunstein propose is "libertarian paternalism", which means a centralized power trying to improve people (paternalism) without imposing any economic or legal incentives (libertarian). If you want people to eat less candy, don't tax or outlaw it: simply place it away from eye-level, so they have to do a little searching at the store when they want a Snickers. No-one's freedom has been impinged upon, and we've stopped our automatic system from ruining our long-term reflective plans.
Over the coming years, the lessons of this book will gain traction as we reconcile big government goals with small-government fear of intrusion. A very worthwhile read. (show less)
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