Six Top Tips For Public Managers To 'Nudge' Citizens

Governments the world over seek to influence citizen choices and encourage us to recycle, to stop smoking, to read to our children.  Traditional policy levers employed to achieve desired outcomes  – taxing or prohibiting "bad" choices, subsidising or requiring "good" ones -  can work, but they are hard to target and costly to enforce.

The idea of 'nudging' citizens into making better decisions has been in vogue in the past few years. The Obama administration is a known fan and the UK Government launched a Behavioural Insights Team to look at using these alternative levers of influence. For example, using more targeted language in  HMRC tax demands, hard-hitting adverts about the risks of speeding, and providing better information about food content.  These push human buttons such as guilt, wanting to conform and having better information to influence choices.