6 - Conclusion

Summary

At the beginning of this book, we set out to address four questions: what is nudging?; where has it come from?; should we use it?; and, where and when is it best applied? By way of conclusion, we return to each of these questions.

What is nudging?

We have presented nudging as a distinctly gentle form of power. Nudging combines the insights of certain branches of the behavioural sciences into the irrational nature of human decision-making with insights from design science concerning the power of environmental stimuli. Put simply, nudging seeks neither to change the individual (through education or moral persuasion), or coerce people (through regulation or taxation), but rather to coax desired behaviours through a better understanding of our collective biases and decision-making environments. In summary, nudging:

• 1. Tends to target human unconscious bias as both a source of behavioural error and route to effective behavioural modification.

• 2. Is based upon a more-than-rational account of the human subject.

• 3. Offers alternative policy mechanisms to those traditionally associated with education, taxation and regulation.

• 4. Suggests new opportunities for intervention within areas of personal wellbeing.

• 5. Avoids coercive measures.

Throughout this volume, however, we have seen that nudging rarely exists in the world in its purest form. It more commonly exists in various hybrid forms and combinations. So, while nudging often operates at an unconscious level, targets human irrationality, and is distinct from educational policy, it can be used to raise awareness of an issue, prompt rational reflections, and support education (as is the case with emerging Nudge-plus approaches). We have also seen that despite being seemingly antithetical to coercion, in its digital (Nudge 2.0) forms nudging can be hard to avoid and resist.

Despite its association with gentle, suggestive forms of power, we have also seen that in generating new opportunities for states and corporations to legitimately intervene within our personal lives and wellbeing nudging challenges many of the shibboleths of liberal society, in particular the harm-to-others principle and the limits of legitimate state intervention. In these contexts, we recommend that when seeking to answer the question, “what is nudging?”