ATS1264 Study Guide - Final Guide: Behavioural Insights Team, Choice Architecture, Status Quo Bias
5 Dec 2018
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What is nudging? (not about rational capacity to take on information and make informed choices, works in a different fashion from education) We are not the autonomous, rational decision-makers that we typically think we are (education campaigns presupposes that we are autonomous, rational decision-makers) We are imperfect decision-makers; predictably irrational --> because of cognitive biases (happen all the time when we are making decisions in ways that we are completely unaware of) Social and behavioural psychology reveals our bounded rationality and tendency to succumb to cognitive biases. Decision making and preferences are significantly shaped by biases, to the point where their robustness/stability is illusory. Some examples: status quo bias, framing effect, proximity effect, confirmation bias (we like being told what we already think), etc. By taking such biases into account when formulating law/policy (instead of trying to get rid of biases, we should use them) , the state hopes to nudge" citizens to make better (health) decisions.
