THE cover of this book echoes its core anxiety. A giant foot presses down on a sullen, Michael Jackson-like figure 鈥� a besuited citizen coolly holding off its massive weight. This is a sinister image to associate with a volume (and its author, Cass Sunstein) that should be able to proclaim a decade of success in the government鈥檚 use of 鈥渂ehavioural science鈥�, or nudge theory. But doubts are brewing about its long-term effectiveness in changing public behaviour 鈥� as well as about its selective account of evolved human nature.
Nudging has had a strong and illustrious run at the highest level. Outgoing US President Barack Obama and former UK Prime Minister David Cameron both set up behavioural science units at the heart of their administrations (Sunstein was the administrator of the White House Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs from 2009 to 2012).
Sunstein insists that the powers that be cannot avoid nudging us. Every shop floor plan, every new office design, every commercial marketing campaign, every public information campaign, is an 鈥渁rchitecting of choices鈥�. As anyone who ever tried to leave IKEA quickly will suspect, that endless, furniture-strewn path to the exit is no accident.
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Nudges 鈥渟teer people in particular directions, but also allow them to go their own way鈥�. They are entreaties to change our habits, to accept old or new norms, but they presume thatwe are ultimately free to refuse the request.
However, our freedom is easily constrained by 鈥渃ognitive biases鈥�. Our brains, say the nudgers, are lazy, energy-conserving mechanisms, often overwhelmed by information. So a good way to ensure that people pay into their pensions, for example, is to set payment as a 鈥渄efault鈥� in employment contracts, so the employee has to actively untick the box. Defaults of all kinds exploit our preference for inertia and the status quo in order to increase future security.
鈥淓ver tried to leave IKEA quickly? That endless, furniture-strewn path to the exit is no accident鈥�
These, and other limits to our 鈥渃ognitive operations鈥� 鈥� like 鈥減resent bias鈥�, where we focus on the short term and downplay the future, or our 鈥渦nrealistic optimism鈥� about our prospects, or our poor assessment of probable outcomes are fully deployed in 厂耻苍蝉迟别颈苍鈥檚 argument
What critics nearly a decade ago were dubbing 厂耻苍蝉迟别颈苍鈥檚 鈥淗omer Economicus鈥� view of human nature (named after Homer Simpson and his notoriously defensive response to the challenges of life in Springfield) stands untouched.
厂耻苍蝉迟别颈苍鈥檚 Nudge (with Richard Thaler) was published in 2008, and the thinking behind it, while gaining quick traction, has barely progressed. The book is still largely predicated on data from research on American college kids. It is an expedient rationale for governing mandarins, giving them a guilt-free alibi for their 鈥渓iberal paternalism鈥�.
pointed out that Obama鈥檚 enthusiasm for nudging was, in the circumstances, perfectly understandable. Beating back the financial crisis of 2007鈥�2008, and facing an antagonistic Congress, the question was 鈥渉ow to use executive action to salvage something positive in the face of a hopeless political situation鈥�?
Nudges could change public behaviour without having to get a majority on the Floor. 鈥淭his is not exactly what the candidate of hope and change had in mind by 鈥榟ope and change鈥�, 鈥� writes David V. Johnson, 鈥渂ut it would have to do.鈥�
Sunstein makes useful distinctions between nudges and the other things governments and enterprises can do. Nudges are not 鈥渕andates鈥� (laws, regulations, punishments). A mandate would be, for example, a rigorous and well-administered carbon tax, secured through a democratic or representative process. A 鈥渘udge鈥� puts smiley faces on your energy bill, and compares your usage to that of the eco-efficient Joneses next door (nudgers like to game our herd-like social impulses).
In a fascinating survey section, which asks Americans and others what they actually think about being the subjects of the 鈥渁rchitecting鈥� of their choices, Sunstein discovers that 鈥渋f people are told that they are being nudged, they will react adversely and resist鈥�.
This is why nudge thinking may be faltering 鈥� its understanding of human nature unnecessarily (and perhaps expediently) downgrades our powers of conscious thought.
From the psychology and neuroscience around play, creativity, dreaming and sleep, we can as easily derive a picture of human cognition that doesn鈥檛 recoil from the buzzing, blooming demands of everyday life, but exults in using imagination, stories, abstraction and metaphor to comprehend the world.
Can we architect a society that supports our cognitive surpluses, rather than exploiting our cognitive limits? If 鈥渁ttention is a scarce resource鈥�, as Sunstein writes, perhaps we might manage the coming march of automation a different way, by using it to reduce our overall working hours? This would then increase the zone in which our attention could be freely and creatively exercised.
That rebellious, rock-star figure on the cover is entirely appropriate. The ethics of human creativity, and the structural conditions which support its flourishing, may prove to be the ultimate challenge to the nudgers.
Cambridge University Press
This article appeared in print under the headline 鈥淧laying politics鈥�
