Nudge: Improving Decisions about Health, Wealth, and HappinessA New York Times bestseller with more than 1.5 million copies sold Named a Best Book of the Year by the Economist and the Financial Times “An essential read . . . loaded with good ideas that financial-service executives, policy makers, Wall Street mavens, and all savers can use.”—John F. Wasik, Boston Globe “Save the planet, save yourself. Do-gooders, policymakers, this one's for you.”—Newsweek Every day, we make decisions on topics ranging from personal investments to schools for our children to the meals we eat to the causes we champion. Unfortunately, we often choose poorly. Nobel laureate Richard Thaler and legal scholar and bestselling author Cass Sunstein explain in this important exploration of choice architecture that, being human, we all are susceptible to various biases that can lead us to blunder. Our mistakes make us poorer and less healthy; we often make bad decisions involving education, personal finance, health care, mortgages and credit cards, the family, and even the planet itself. In Nudge, Thaler and Sunstein invite us to enter an alternative world, one that takes our humanness as a given. They show that by knowing how people think, we can design choice environments that make it easier for people to choose what is best for themselves, their families, and their society. Using colorful examples from the most important aspects of life, Thaler and Sunstein demonstrate how thoughtful “choice architecture” can be established to nudge us in beneficial directions without restricting freedom of choice. Nudge offers a unique new take—from neither the left nor the right—on many hot-button issues, for individuals and governments alike. This is one of the most engaging and provocative books to come along in many years. |
From inside the book
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... architect. A choice architect has the responsibility for organizing the context in which people make de- cisions. Although Carolyn is a figment of our imagination, many real peo- ple turn out to be choice architects, most without ...
... architects realize that although they can't build the per- fect building , they can make some design choices that ... architect must eventually build some particular building , a choice architect like Carolyn must choose a particular ...
... them to do otherwise — or even make things hard for them . Still , the approach we recommend does count as pa- 5 INTRODUCTION 6 ternalistic, because private and public choice architects are YD8883.001-014 1/24/08 12:19 PM Page 5.
... architects are not merely try- ing to track or to implement people's anticipated choices. Rather, they are self-consciously attempting to move people in directions that will make their lives better. They nudge. A nudge, as we will use ...
... architects. It is true, of course, that some nudges are unintentional; employers may decide (say) whether to pay employees monthly or biweekly without intending to cre- ate any kind of nudge, but they might be surprised to discover that ...
Contents
2 | |
6 | |
17 | |
40 | |
53 | |
When Do We Need a Nudge? | 72 |
Choice Architecture | 81 |
MONEY | 93 |
Smorgasbord Style | 145 |
Part D for Daunting | 159 |
How to Increase Organ Donations | 175 |
Saving the Planet | 183 |
Improving School Choices | 199 |
Should Patients Be Forced to Buy Lottery Tickets? | 207 |
Privatizing Marriage | 215 |
PART V | 227 |
Save More Tomorrow | 103 |
Naïve Investing | 118 |
Credit Markets | 132 |
Objections | 236 |
The Real Third Way | 252 |
Other editions - View all
Nudge: Improving Decisions about Health, Wealth and Happiness Richard H. Thaler No preview available - 2008 |