Exploring Nudge Theory in Government Decision-making

Nudge Questions

Introduction (Whenever possible, be sure to use concrete examples not found in the book in your answers).

1. Explain whether Carolyn can ever arrange food in a neutral way. What implications does your answer have for governmental decision making?

It is impossible to ever arrange the food in a neutral way because in any way you put it, people will be nudged to pick something. Even if you put it randomly like it was suggested in the book, some people will end up choosing much healthier options than the other school. In a way you have an obligation to make the right choice, because they will be influenced either way. If you can nudge them to make the correct choice, this is better than putting it random. Even at random they

Color, size and many other factors will determine who undecided voters will vote for. A way to solve this problem is to alternate the order, so there is an equal chance for everyone

3. Define choice architecture and explain its importance.

Choice architecture is the design in which different choices can be made, and the impact of that design on the the person making the choices. This is incredibly important for society. People are going to be nudged no matter what you do. With choice architecture, you can design the choices in a way that will benefit the people. For example where the items are placed on a store shelf can have a huge effect on what people buy. So companies will pay to have a better placement on the shelf.

4. Explain the importance of the horsefly example discussed in the Introduction.

In men's bathrooms, if you place an image of a horsefly in a urinal off to the side people are more likely to not miss. Usually when men pee, they are on autopilot (system 1). When you are peeing on autopilot, you aren't really focusing where you are aiming. When you place an image of a horsefly it will grab the attention. Now that the attention has been grabbed, they have shifted from system 1 to system 2. They are now thinking and will aim for the

Rather we often rely on system one to make choices and ergo we make mistakes. Additionally there is an informational asymmetry, where we have less knowledge than others. Because of this lack of information we can not always make the best choice. We can also be influenced to make negative choices, without thinking them through. For example, consider a high school party. At this party everyone is doing drugs and drinking alcohol. If they were truly logical beings, they would have realized these things are bad for their future. Yet because of the pressure to do these things, and all the influences we see on the media they are all