Nudge by Thaler & Sunstein

The dictionary meaning of Nudge is “a light touch or a push”. This amazing book by Richard H Thaler and Cass R Sunstein gives you well experimented practical nudges on how to improve decisions on your health , wealth and happiness. Along with nudge the book also insists on Libertarian paternalism , meaning people should be free to choose what they want but at the same time it is ok for the private or government institutions to affect their behavior in order to make their lives longer, healthier and better.

Nudge is a key concept to be well understood by the governments who would wish their citizens to collectively achieve a national goal. This could be anything from eradication of a disease like polio , improving financial stability via savings and investments or tackling climate change by promoting use of green and clean energy.  Nudge has the potential to assist with all these wide range of problems and at the same time people are felt forced to do something.

Choice Architecture , the art of creating options for a person in such a way that it follows the principle of libertarian paternalism in another practice of Nudge. Choice architects are everywhere around us and they are changing our lives in unimaginable ways, that pop up notification from your social media which wants to keep you engaged , no windows in shopping mall so you forget the time spent there , free subscriptions for first month followed by default deductions . These are just a few examples of how private institutions are affecting your behavior . Book clearly assumes that we human beings are very poor at decision making  and government could make us choose wise options with a certain nudge.