Challenge: Happy Birthday nudge!

By Pelle Guldborg Hansen

I don't think that my sister have ever paid serious attention to anything I've said in my life.

Not until last Sunday at my niece's Birthday, that is.

The birthday nudge
My sister works with the Danish Cancer Society - the same organization (but different section) that we are working with through the Danish Nudging Network. Although I've once told her about nudging, I guess it's there that she has picked up some ideas.

Thus, last Sunday at my niece's Birthday party, my sister suddenly makes the announcement at the table that she has made a little nudge-experiment.

What nobody had noticed was that there were two different varieties of Birthday buns served in each their basket: one variety with sugar, one variety without. Ultimately nobody had noticed, and thus the result was that 50% less sugar was eaten, since pick of bread basket was more or less random (my sister switched bread baskets once in a while during the party).

Is it a nudge?
Whether this is a nudge depends on a few decisions. Thaler and Sunstein's definition of a nudge doesn't say explicitly whether adding a choice-option rules out a nudge. Thus one has to go to the background theory of behavioral economics to get it right. According to this, adding an option is a nudge if it influences real world behavior, but leaves the ideal agent of homo economicus unaffected.  

Ultimately, the Birthday buns manage the fundamental requirements. Adding a sugarless variety of buns left the standard singleton-choice of buns with sugar feasible. Also, there were no cost-benefit adjustment attached in any way to the intervention - not even of the social kind, since my sister didn't inform us about the addition of a new choice.

Rational Birthday party challenge
But the decisive question is: would an ideal agent be influenced by the addition of a choice?

Well, on the one hand he wouldn't have any information about the sugarless variety to begin with. That seems to leave a Birthday party of rational agents to end up with eating 50% less sugar given their imperfect information and the assumption that choice of bread basket is made at random.  

But is this the right baseline to compare observed effect with when evaluating whether the intervention ultimately qualifies as a nugde?

I want to pose this as a challenge to you readers out there: is the Birthday Bun Nudge, really a nugde?

Clues
I'll provide my answer later on. For now, I leave you with the following clues.

(1) Ideal decision makers have taste-buds just like everyone else, but they also have perfect recall.
(2) At the rational birthday party ideal decision makers have imperfect information, but are also capable of learning.
(3) People did not eat the same number of Birthday buns. Some ate 1, most ate 2 or 3, and a few ate 4.
(4) My sister was willing to answer any question honestly.

Report no.1: ISSP Public Lecture w. Richard Thaler

By Pelle Guldborg Hansen, Andreas Maaløe Jespersen & Katrine Lund Skov

On October 21 the long anticipated ISSP Public Lecture 2011 was given by Richard Thaler at the Metropolitan University College in Copenhagen. 


More than 200 citizens, business representatives, academics, and policy makers had decided to use the Friday of the Danish one week "potato-holiday" to attend Prof. Thaler's lecture on Nudging.


The lecture
The lecture was arranged through the Danish Nudging Network in collaboration between ISSP, the Metropolitan University College, University of Southern Denmark, Trygfonden, the Danish Cancer Society, MindLab, DEA, and Aalborg University with the aim of giving anyone with an interest in our general 'health, wealth and happiness' a first hand encounter with the nudge-doctrine and one of its 'founding fathers'. The encounter became both intimate, deliberative and entertaining.

Throughout the lecture Prof. Thaler stayed close to the main tenets of the underlying book Nudge: Improving Decisions about Health, Wealth and Happiness (2008) thereby truly respecting the fact that the idea of nudging is new to most people in Denmark. As a result the audience got an impression of the original motives underlying the writing of the book as well as its core ideas.

The lecture covered several 'high-impact' examples of nudging such as schemes for private pension systems and sign up procedures for organ donation. But it also presented some concrete examples from the world of design, architecture, and law, such as badly designed stoves, school lunch rooms, and mobile calling plans.

Common to all of the various examples Prof. Thaler presented was that they each showed in one way or another, how accepting and respecting the psychology of human decision making in the way we arrange the details of the physical, social, and juridical structures that underpin our decisions and behavior may make a significant difference on society and our individual well-being.

Questions and answers
After 1½ hour the ISSP Lecture concluded with a relaxed Q&A. The questions reflected the broad variety of interest represented in the audience. "Will nudging make us less capable of handling choices in the future?"  and "What separates nudging from manipulation?" were some of the questions asked thereby showing that the ISSP Lecture served its purpose of allowing people first-hand interaction and engagement with Nudging and one of its founding fathers.

In the picture you can see Prof. Richard Thaler (sitting), Co-Director of ISSP Pelle Guldborg Hansen (standing), Anders Hede (Trygfonden, back to camera), Science Journalist Peter Hesseldahl (background to the right) Credit: Tobias Egmose

However, to find out what Prof. Thaler answered to these question you have wait a little while...


While waiting you might want to read about the perfect way to nudge yourself to freedom.

Interview with Richard Thaler and Guldborg Hansen

By Pelle Guldborg Hansen

Yesterday, The Engineer - a newspaper with approx. 60.000 subscribers (mostly engineers for some odd reason!) - featured a long article about nudging. The article incorporates and is based on an interview with Prof. Richard Thaler (Chicago Booth) and Pelle Guldborg Hansen (Co-Director of ISSP and Chairman of the Danish Nudging Network) given Oct. 22 - the day after Prof. Thaler's ISSP Public Lecture about nudging held at Metropol.

The article is written by Robin Engelhard who is a highly respected science journalist in Denmark. The interview shows why Robin Engelhardt is highly respected - it is both sound, critical and balanced.

If you know how to read Danish (or just how to use google translate), but don't subscribe to The Engineer you may read the unedited edition of the article at Robin's Depot.

Public Lecture: Richard Thaler in Copenhagen

ISSP and Danish Nudging Network are proud to present professor Richard Thaler on 21 October in Copenhagen.

Thaler is a Ralph and Dorothy Keller Distinguished Service Professor in Behavioural theory and-economics at Chicago Booth, but most notably renowned for, together with Cass Sunstein, having written the book Nudge – Improving decisions about health, wealth and happiness (2008).

On 21 October (The Autumn holiday Friday) at 10:00-12:00 we are able to present a large public lecture with Thaler.

The event will be held at:

Professionshøjskolen Metropol, Campus Rådmandsmarken, Sigurdsgade 26, 2200 København N.

The purpose of Thaler’s visit is to increase awareness about the Nudge paradigm amongst the public and policy makers, especially in regards to the preliminary results, the future potentials and the immediate reservations in relation to this.

The Nudge paradigm has already gathered a large following and prevalence in the US and UK. Sunstein is advisor for president Obama’s administration, while Thaler has been special advisor for the British ”Nudge-Unit”, which in recent years has worked on integrating insights from behavioural economics into British health policy.

Sign up for the event

The event is coordinated by Danish Nudging Network, with ISSP, Kræftens Bekæmpelse, TrygFonden, Mind-Lab, Metropol, University of Southern Denmark, Aalborg University and DEA as leading forces.


Next post: Why the piano-stairs are not a case of nudging

2nd meeting in the Danish Nudging Network

By Pelle Guldborg Hansen & Andreas Maaløe Jespersen

September 21 is approaching fast - the date that ought to be in your calendar if you're considering having your institution or organization incorporate nudging in its approach to behavioral change.  

Since our first meeting in the Danish nudging network in January 2011, interest as well as members in the network have been rising fast - as well as the number of talks that Andreas and I have been giving throughout Denmark.

Thus, we couldn't have been happier, when Richard Thaler said he would come to Denmark October 21 to help us raise awareness about the potentials that the Nudge approach offers to decision and policy makers.

So what's so special about September 21?
Well, since we know that a lot of you would like to know a bit more about nudging and prepare yourself properly for Prof. Thaler's visit, we've decided - in the true spirit of the nudging paradigm - to have the 2nd meeting of the nudging network EXACTLY one month prior to October 21. That should be easy to remember!

At the meeting new as well as old members will be introduced to the basic ideas behind the nudge paradigm, some of the major societal challenges that nudging may offer a new approach to engage with, as well as some lessons from the recent debate on nudging in the UK.

You may find the programme on page 3 of the Network's most recent newsletter HERE.

The meeting will be held at 

Metropolitan City University in Copenhagen

Pustervigvej 8, 2. sal, 

1126 Copenhagen

You may sign up by writing an e-mail to Andreas Maaløe Jespersen: anmaje@ruc.dk.

But do also remember to register for the Public Lecture by Richard Thaler October 21 HERE.

Also - please remember to share this post with interested collegaues and friends! 

The meeting is organized in collaboration by: