Here is a simple experiment to test a social change theory. Do you often need a little nudge to get going? Read on and see what you think.
The most important thing in communication is to hear what isn’t being said.
Peter Drucker
Three hundred households in a California town were divided into two groups. Half were sent normal power bills, and the other half had a smiley face on their bills if their consumption was below average, and a frowning face if their usage was higher than average.
The results could not have been more conclusive: within the group with faces on their bills, high users reduced their electricity consumption, and low users consumed even less than before.
Simple enough? The difference was a little yellow circle on a piece of paper, but was it a significant impact?
Researchers have noted that creative people tend to re-conceptualize problems more often before starting a creative task. As Einstein once said, “If I had an hour to solve a problem I’d spend 55 minutes thinking about the problem and five minutes thinking about solutions.”
Nudge Theory rose to global prominence in 2008 with the release of the book Nudge: Improving Decisions About Health, Wealth, and Happiness, by Professor Richard Thaler and legal scholar Cass R. Sunstein. The volume brought the discourse on Nudge theory to the wider public of government, as well as the private sector involvement in public health and related fields.
Professors Richard Thaler and Cass Sunstein cite the smiley experiment as a simple example of their theory that people can be gently encouraged to behave in socially desirable ways. As shown here, even small incentives can improve people’s behavior. The two call it the nudge theory, quietly shepherding people in is the right direction.
They cite many examples of research that raise “serious questions about the rationality of many judgments and decisions that people make.” (Wikipedia) They state that, unlike members of homo economicus, members of the species homo sapiens make predictable mistakes because of the way they are influenced by their social interactions.
These two leading US professors say that small pushes in the right direction can overcome people’s natural inertia and bring about large-scale social change; they call this effect nudge theory.
Simple enough? The difference was a little yellow circle on a piece of paper, but it had a big impact. Professors Richard Thaler and Cass Sunstein cite the smiley experiment as a simple example of their theory that people can be gently encouraged to behave in socially desirable ways. As shown here, even small incentives can improve people’s behavior. The two call it the nudge theory, quietly shepherding people in is the right direction.
Why should society need a nudge in the first place? The research team questions one of the major assumptions of economic theory, homo economicus, which is the idea that humans act in an enlightened and rational way to maximize their wellbeing. Their theory says no emotions play no part in their behavior.
