Instead of tightly regulated state and church laws that limit our behavior, we have an expanding number of institutions that use modern psychology, microeconomics, and mass communications to “nudge” us toward certain behaviors—to incentivize and pressure us to act in particular ways, often without our knowledge. The most obvious example is the way that smartphones “nudge” us to pay attention to them with sounds, vibrations, and rewarding interactions. Health insurance companies “nudge” us to eat healthier, governments “nudge” us to graduate from high school and read to our kids, and
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