What is Nudge marketing?

This wiki page is about nudges and how they can be implemented in society. First, a definition of a nudge is being provided. Next the underlying psychological mechanisms of nudges will be discussed. Then the consumer perspective on nudges in markets will explained, followed by the more macro-focused perspectives of politics and ethics.

Definition of a nudge

Nudges are psychologically informed tools that are designed to promote behavioural change. Or like Thaler & Sunstein (2008, p. 6) describe it in their book; nudges are “any aspects of the choice architecture that alters people’s behaviour in a predictable way without forbidding any options or significantly changing their economic incentives”.

Human behaviour is not always deliberate or rational (Loersch, & Payne, 2011), that is why nudges steer behaviour by making use of the cognitive flaws that determine such behaviour (Hansen, & Jespersen, 2013). A well-known example of a nudge is the image of a housefly in an urinal to prevent spilling (Thaler, & Sunstein, 2008), or a pattern on the floor leading towards the stairs to encourage taking the stairs instead of the lift. In markets they can be used to steer the behaviour of consumers in a way that they will buy certain products over others. For example, placing a certain brand on eye level to enhance sales of that brand.

In various domains the potential of nudges to change behaviour has been shown, such as sustainable behaviour (Pichert, & Katsikopoulos, 2008), organ donation (Johnson, & Goldstein, 2003) and prosocial behaviour (Croson, & Shang, 2008). The idea is that the “better” option becomes the more convenient or salient for the decision maker to select (Lin, Osman, & Ashcroft, 2017). In the past few years, both public and private institutions have shown increasing interest in the use of nudges because they are generally low-cost and have the potential to promote different goals (public health, economic etc) (Sunstein, 2014).