Nudge Theory in Practice
Analysis
BBC
4.6 • 1K Ratings
🗓️ 25 March 2013
⏱️ 29 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Politicians are wary of forcing us to do the things they think we should such as drinking less, saving more for our pensions or using public transport. But they are also reluctant to do nothing. The theories expounded in the book Nudge, published in 2008, suggested there was a third way: a "libertarian paternalist" option whereby governments made doing the right thing easier but not obligatory. Rather than making pensions compulsory, for example, governments could make saving for one the default option whilst preserving the right to opt out.
Nudge theory appealed to our better selves and to our politicians. The book's ideas were taken up by those inside government in Britain and the US.
One of the book's authors, Cass Sunstein, answers questions from an audience at the Institute for Government in London and tells presenter Edward Stourton how well he thinks his theories are working in practice.
Producer: Rosamund Jones.
Transcript
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| 0:35.4 | Sounds. |
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| 0:40.4 | Edward Stern interviews Professor Cass Sunstein about nudge theory, |
| 0:44.6 | how to change behavior and society without legislation or regulation. Welcome to the Institute for Government in London. In this addition of analysis, |
| 1:00.3 | we're going to hear from a man who may have had a significant impact on your life |
| 1:04.0 | without you knowing it. Five years ago, Cass Sunstein and another Chicago |
| 1:08.6 | academic, Richard Thaler, published a book called Nudge, Improving Decisions about Health, Wealth and Happiness. |
| 1:15.0 | It seems wrong to describe it as a big new idea because it's actually about the way that very small things can make a big difference. |
| 1:23.0 | But it has been hugely influential in both the Obama White House |
| 1:26.3 | where Professor Sunstein worked until quite recently, |
| 1:29.1 | and in number 10, which has its own so-called nudge unit. |
| 1:32.4 | And we'll hear from the man who runs that in the course of the program. |
| 1:35.0 | We're meeting just up the road from Whitehall, and we have with us a large number of people whose job in one way or another is to implement government policy. |
| 1:44.0 | And I hope that some of you will in the course of the program have questions of your own for Professor |
| 1:48.9 | Sunstein. |
| 1:49.8 | But before I begin my conversation with him, I just want to get a sense of how many of you in this room have either had some kind of nudge trainee, if that's the right phrase, or felt that your work has been influenced by the arrival of the nudge culture. |
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