Nudging by Shaming, Shaming by Nudging

Document Type: Editorial

Author

Center for Bioethics, Harvard Medical School, and Department of Global Health and population, Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, MA, USA

Abstract

In both developing and developed countries, health ministries closely examine use of so-called nudges to promote population health and welfare. Cass Sunstein and Richard Thaler, who developed the concept, define a nudge as “any aspect of the choice architecture that alters people’s behavior in a predictable way without forbidding any options or significantly changing their economic incentives. To count as a nudge, the intervention must be easy and cheap to avoid. Nudges are not mandates” (1).

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References

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