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
Results 1-5 of 87
... problem with the terms is that they have been captured by dogmatists . The libertarian aspect of our strategies lies in the straightforward insis- tence that , in general , people should be free to do what they like — and to opt out of ...
... problems. And we can do so while still insisting on everyone's free- dom to choose. INTRODUCTION 9 A False Assumption and Two Misconceptions Many people. *Alert readers will notice that incentives can come in different forms. If steps ...
... problems: Just Maximize (the number and variety of) Choices—full stop! The policy has been pushed in many domains, from education to prescription drug insurance plans. In some circles, Just Max- imize Choices has become a policy mantra ...
... problem is not merely hypothetical. We once had a meeting with three of the top administrative officers of the university to discuss similar issues, and the meeting happened to take place on the final day of the em- ployees' open ...
... problems similar to our example, people from Chicago are likely to make a high guess (based on their high anchor) while those from Green Bay guess low (based on their low anchor). As it happens, Milwaukee has about 580,000 people.4 Even ...
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 |