Nudge, Nudge, Think, Think: Experimenting with Ways to Change Civic Behaviour

by Peter John, Graham Smith, Gerry Stoker

How can governments persuade citizens to act in socially beneficial ways? Thaler and Sunstein's book Nudge drew on work from behavioral economics to claim that citizens might be encouraged through ‘light touch interventions’ (i.e.nudges) to take action. In this ground-breaking successor to Nudge, Peter John and his colleagues argue that an alternative approach also needs to be considered, based on what they call a 'think' strategy. Their core idea is that citizens should themselves deliberate and decide their own priorities as part of a process of civic and democratic renewal. The authors not only set out these divergent approaches in theory but they offer evidence from a series of experiments to show how using techniques from ‘nudge’ or ‘think’ repertoires work in practice and how that practice is made effective. The book is unique in exploring an expanding field of policy and social science interest - changing civic behavior, using insights from another growing field of social science interest - the rise of experimental methods.

Genres: Psychology, Politics

202 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 2011

Reviews

[Sarah Clement · Rating 5 out of 5]

Behaviour change and deliberative democracy are two of my favourite topics, and this book combines them both in a really interesting, evidence-based way. I have read a lot of books on behaviour change, but to be honest all of them have disappointed me. They tend to be predicated on the idea that behaviour change is the way of the future, and that we can somehow manufacture paradigm shifts. Many of the authors of behaviour change books are consultants who make their living off developing community-based social marketing interventions, and the bias is clear in their work. In contrast, the academic literature tends to indicate that behaviour change achieves very modest gains. I've always been bothered by this disconnect.

This book, however, appropriately discusses behaviour change in terms of "nudging" (based on a previous book called Nudge, to which the authors give due credit), which I think is a much more realistic way of framing behaviour change interventions. It also tests deliberative methods - the "think" - which I though provided a great complement to the discussion of nudge. These are two hot topics in the world of social science, and they covered them well. The authors advocate for rigorous testing of interventions - something that is sorely needed in this area. Unfortunately, the organisations that tend to do this type of work do not always know how to set up appropriate pilot tests, and they often do not receive good advice. Anyone who works in this area would do well to pick up this book. The authors provide very frank, realistic assessments of a number of different interventions. I particularly liked that they were so open about the very real, sometimes chaotic complications that are inevitable in dealing with social complexity. For instance, in one chapter they discuss attempts to get local officials to select underrepresented members of the public to be interviewed in a DVD. Rather than following their advice, a number of the people they interviewed were the already engaged "usual suspects". This is exactly the sort of thing that happens outside the walls of academia, and I really appreciated their frank discussion of their struggles.

My only complaint about the book is that I would have liked more. I would love to see a sequel to this book, in which they use this sort of research to make more in-depth practical recommendations for designing nudge and think strategies, and perhaps a tool to help practitioners decide when they should 'nudge', when they should encourage 'think', and when both are called for. I realise that the main point of this book was to outline case studies, so I am just hoping there will be a sequel!

[teohjitkhiam · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book is remarkably dense in "academic-speak" thus making it far less accessible to a layperson, unlike the book by Thaler (recent Nobel Prize winner to boot) and Sunstein. Furthermore, as I plowed through with gritted teeth, the authors left an impression upon me that they were making a very weak case for their arguments.

[BVC · Rating 2 out of 5]

Giusto come leggerissima introduzione alla teoria del nudge.