How nudges by government can empower citizens without manipulating their preferences or
exploiting their biases. We're all familiar with the idea of nudging-using behavioral
mechanisms to encourage people to make certain choices-popularized by Richard Thaler and Cass
Sunstein in their bestselling 2008 book Nudge. This approach also known as libertarian
paternalism goes beyond typical programs that simply provide information and incentives
nudges can range from automatic enrollment in a pension plan to flu-shot scheduling. In Nudging
Riccardo Viale explores the evolution of nudging and proposes new approaches that would empower
citizens without manipulating them paternalistically. He shows that we can use the tools of the
behavioral sciences without abandoning the principle of conscious decision-making. Viale
discusses the work of Herbert Simon Gerd Gigerenzer Daniel Kahneman and Amos Tversky that
laid the foundation of behavioral economics describes how policy makers have sought to help
people avoid bad decisions offers examples of effective nudging and considers how to nudge
the nudgers. How can we tell good nudges from bad nudges? Viale explains that good nudges help
us avoid bias and encourage deliberate decision making bad nudges on the other hand use bias
to nudge people unconsciously into unintentional behaviors. Bad nudges attempt to compel
decisions based on economic rationality. Good nudges encourage decisions based on a pragmatic
adaptive ecological kind of rationality. Policy makers should take note.
