Positive Social Nudge

There are various ways in which a positive social nudge can be initiated to help individuals experiencing the issues discussed. According to Thaler and Sunstein, social pressures nudge people to accept some pretty odd conclusions (2009). Although the goal is not to get people to accept an odd conclusion, knowing that social pressures have that much effect on an individual if they are creative enough is vital in the implementation of this program. Furthermore, it would be societies place to nudge deviant people to believe that their friends are bad and they should not hang out with them. This can be done in various ways, including having negative stereotypes and public opinions about deviant individuals. In regards to this program, this would

be done by promoting these negative stereotypes from society to these individuals participating in the program. For instance, according to Stalans, when looking at crime stereotypes and opinion polls, many people questioned the sentencing and endorse harsher punishment for criminals based on how mass medias frame “unrealistic crime stereotypes” (1993).

Therefore, if the program frames deviant individuals and “everyday” criminals in an unrealistic manor that forces them to believe that majority of the public to thinks negatively of these individuals. This sort of nudge would put pressure on the deviant individual to conform and have a more positive view from their community. For instance, with these individuals believing things such as, more of the public arguing for harsher punishment on not-so-serious crimes, the pressure to conform to the rest of society becomes greater to avoid those beliefs of possible negative sanctions. Also, conformity is an easy to initiate, being that people are likely to do what others are doing around them. Therefore, if you put these deviant individuals around non-deviant individuals they are going to be more likely to

conform.
Thus far, the program to nudge individuals away from deviant peers and deviant behaviors has been identified in relation to different strategies and theories to prove its possibility of working.

In review, it is set to nudge young adults away from those peers engaging in deviant activities and influencing their deviant behavior. In theory, it will work by inducing activities between these individuals and non-deviant peers in the same age proximity. By doing this, those individuals who are use to engaging in deviant behaviors by “following the heard” or making a “default” choice will learn to stop engaging in these deviant behaviors by doing the same thing. Furthermore, they will also learn techniques in which they can redirect their thinking to make better decisions, and will be faced with a “fear” tactic to conform to non-deviant behavior. However, there are some ethical issues that would go along with the possibility of this program. The main ethical issue this program is facing is the implementation of the “fear” tactic. The idea behind this is to persuade individuals to conform to society with false information. Promoting false knowledge is not an acceptable way to help an individual and can cause an individual to have resentment to those giving this knowledge and lash out or rebellion and thus, engaging in more deviant activities than originally engaging in. Furthermore, there might also be concerns regarding the participation of non-deviant individuals. As young

adults, they may not want to spend their time trying to repent their deviant peers and encouraging them to do so could be unethical.
Diving deeper in the possibilities this program has to offer, it also has faults that should be addressed. As pervious ethical issues have addressed, there may be issues encouraging non-deviant peers to spend time with deviant peers. In theory, it sounds fantastic to have non-deviant peers nudge their deviant peers to acceptable behavior. However, there is the possibility that the opposite could happen, which has failed to be addressed. The staff of this program would keep close watch on the groups actions and activities. The environment in this program would be controlled and because of this controlled environment it would serve as an easy way to ensure the opposite outcome would not happen. Furthermore, it is always important to be relevant and aware of the nudges around society and if they are a positive or negative nudge. For instance, when we are resisting temptation, who we are around could be influencing the bad temptation and decisions that we make. Therefore, realizing this connection could help make positive decisions or come up with creative ways to be able to make positive decisions. Moreover, by implementing the program outline throughout this paper an individual would be nudged to engaging in positive behaviors and making positive decisions.
The impact that having deviant peers on an individual is huge. An individual has the possibility of getting caught up in a deviant lifestyle by just going with the flow and having poor choice making skills, which can lead them to having a deviant or criminal lifestyle themselves. However, by taking place in a program as the one discussed an individual can be swayed in the opposite direction. By taking into account and exploring many different concepts and theories, such as group decision making, following the heard, decision making techniques, self-control strategies, and more, this program has the ability to nudge individuals in a positive direction. The power of nudges are extremely strong and can be seen in various aspects, more than just discussed in this paper. It is important that individuals remember that although nudges can have a positive impact on an individual’s life, they can also have a negative impact.