Transcripts

Cass Sunstein:
One of my favorite TV shows is called Lost, when John Lott, one of the characters says, "Don't tell me what I can't do." Human beings are often like that, they get angry and they rebel.

Cass Sunstein, author of the book Nudge, says a gentle nudge can be a far more effective way to get other people to make the right decision and stay out of trouble. For example, employers nudge their employees by making it easy to enroll in 401K plans…

which are usually in people's interest because then they can have money for retirement. But the government can also do some nudging; one nudge that really had great success was the toxic relief inventory - it doesn't mandate changes in company behavior, all it mandates is disclosure. It turns out that that disclosure requirement has operated a very powerful nudge because no one wants to be seen as a big releaser of toxic air pollutants.

You can even nudge yourself, what Cass calls "a snudge".

So you can if you want to have automatic bill payment for example, that's "a snudge" -where you protect yourself against your own tendency to procrastinate. People who are worried about their weight can have "a snudge" which is to keep their refrigerators pretty empty. The reason is that everyone knows that when food is in the refrigerator you tend to eat it.

At somethingyoushouldknow.net I'm Mike Carruthers and that's Something You Should Know.