Being a full-time student there isn't much time for reading anything except assigned reading. Nevertheless, I try to sneak-in a book I am interested in before I go to sleep. It helps me to relax and get my mind off of all the studying I need to do. I have been reading the book I mentioned in my blog called Nudge. Nudge is how to do applied social psychology. I feel this is so important to understand that I will be blogging on this for awhile. I believe that this is key to understanding the changing environment of choice and persausion. Thaler and Sunstein say that their information is based on the emerging science of choice...that would be the behavioral sciences. Which I won't go into again as they have been mentioned in previous blogs (also research B.F. Skinner for more information). The research is raising "serious questions about the rationality of many judgements and decisions that people make (see the New Rationality of Economics)." Thaler and Sunstein go on to say that "human decision making is not so great."
Furthermore, people tend to not really make choices but use the status-quo bias or default option. This bias suggests that most people "lack motivation or the ability to process information about choice alternatives" so they just select default so people don't have to make a selection for themselves. Sunstein and Thaler believe that this is a great power to be hijacked by policy makers (choice architects, influence and change agents) "that can greatly influence the outcome" by setting the default to create the behavior that is desired. More to the point, they state "the effects of well-chosen default options provide the gentle power of nudges; a nudge is any factor that significantly alters the behavior of Humans." It may be prudent to educate yourself on the power of nudges that are working to form and shape your decisions and your behavior. Remember, Sunstein and Thaler state this is a new movement and it is a science aimed at nudging you in their direction.
No comments:
Post a Comment