The Rise Of ‘Nudge Units’ And How They Use Psychology To Manipulate Your Decisions
We don’t often stop to think about the thousands of influences that contribute to the decisions we make every day, or the hidden forces that may be exploiting our psychology to encourage us to act a certain way. The nudge is one such force, and although it seems like an innocent reminder, we should never underestimate its effect.
It was an economist named Dr. Richard Thaler who defined the idea of the nudge, beginning with the idea that human beings are not rational creatures, in contrast to the previously held idea that humans always made rational decisions to optimize their outcome. Thaler was the recipient of the Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences in 2017 for his contributions to Behavioral Economics. This was met with a degree of controversy due to the merging of the field of Psychology with Economics.