Nudging

Enabling the Teenage Brain – Blog 17

The term Nudge was first written about in a book Nudge from Cass R. Sunstein and Richard H. Thaler, winner of the 2017 Nobel Prize in Economics.?

“Nudge is about choices - how we make them and how we can make better ones. Every day we make decisions: about the things that we buy or the meals we eat; about the investments we make or our children's health and education; even the causes that we champion or the planet itself. Unfortunately, we often choose poorly. We are all susceptible to biases that can lead us to make bad decisions. And, as Thaler and Sunstein show, no choice is ever presented to us in a neutral way. By knowing how people think, we can make it easier for them to choose what is best for them, their families and society.”?

Amazon? https://www.amazon.co.uk/Nudge-Improving-Decisions-Health-Happiness/dp/0141040017?

To my mind nudging is common sense, but perhaps not common practice.? For example, a nudge is not a command for a young person to do something (although sometimes commands are needed).? A nudge is a suggestion, or a question or an idea that is planted in the mind of another and, if repeated, can lead to a change in thinking which in turn leads to adapted behaviour.?

So, why do nudges work?? Because for effective long-term behaviour change to result, the individual in question must decide for themselves they want to change.? No other person can make that decision for them.? Nudges can help during this decision-making phase and increase the chance the individual will make a positive change.? Nudges can instill within a person a sense of commitment, a sense that they are strong enough to cope with the change.?

In previous Blog posts I have discussed Positive Reinforcement techniques, the most powerful of which are nudges.? These can be words on a poster or spoken by a tutor.? Over the last 9 years young people have offered the following comments about their experiences at NMT:?

• The tutors get me and talk to me as if I am human?

• The tutors are ordinary people and communicate in I way I get?

• It is fun and relaxed, and we banter?

• The staff don’t stress out when I shout or yell – they are patient?

• There is less pressure and less written work which scares me?

All our tutors have proven, if the young people attend, they can succeed on their learning journey.? Yes, we often need to endure a lot of rubbish in terms of behaviour, but if we are honest, even the most challenging do make progress, slowly mature, “grow up”.? I am not at each centre each day, so I do witness this change in young people, it is often month by month vs week by week.?

I spent some time viewing YouTube videos on nudging and thought the two below were useful:?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JkSLEyUMBHM?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sOeL-nc3BB8?

I was somewhat surprised that there weren’t more examples of it in action vs people just talking about it.? I guess we could collect those examples – anyone reading this able to offer some suggestions?

David?

?