Barbie vs Oppenheimer? Nudge Theory Explained

Manchester City Council recently installed a series of bins in Piccadilly that allow people to vote on divisive subjects in the hopes of reducing litter. 

However, the #Pickyourside campaign is more than just a bit a fun. It’s grounded in behavioural economics. Nudge Theory, first formulated by the Nobel Laureate Richard Thaler and fellow economist Cass Sunstein, argues that subtle conditioning and small environmental changes can actually have a profound impact on the behaviour of individuals and groups. In this example incentivising individuals to discard their litter by allowing them to vote for their preferred film.

In their bestselling book, Thaler and Sunstein point out that humans don’t always make rational decisions but that “choice architects”, those with the “responsibility for organising the context in which people make decisions”, can employ nudges to assist humans in making better decisions, particularly in the context of  health, wealth and happiness.

While we wait to determine if the bins help to reduce litter in Manchester, here are five effective examples of nudge theory in action, courtesy of Marcus Clarke:

1. Bulls eye: Authourities in Amsterdam airport installed small fly shape stickers in their urinals providing something for people to aim for, even subconsciously, helping to reduce spillages by 80%
   
   
2. Eat your veggies: A large chain of grocery stores in America placed green arrows on the floor leading to their fruit and vegetables aisles. They found that shoppers followed the arrows 9 out of 10 times leading to a substantial increase in sales of their fresh produce
   
   
3. Big bin, little bin: In the UK a scheme was launched providing homes with two bins. One for regular waste and another for recyclable materials. The recycling bin is a third bigger, the hope is that by limiting the space for general waste, people will recycle more as the recycling bin can store more of their waste.
   
   
4. Organ donation: Countries where people have to opt in to donating organs generally see a maximum of 30% of the population registering to donate. In countries where people are automatically enrolled in organ donation schemes and have to opt out, only about 10-15% bother – providing a far larger pool of organ donors.
   
   
5. See food: In an experiment to determine the effects of displaying foods in a certain way in school cafeterias, students selected healthier foods in comparison to control groups when healthy choices were displayed at eye level or when deserts were displayed at the end of the line rather than the beginning.
   
   

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