I just bought it
I always believed I could make rational decisions, I never doubted it until I found myself going towards a particular brand of instant noodles even when I knew there were better options. I had to understand what led me to them. It wasn’t the taste, almost all noodles taste the same. I wondered if it was the packaging but there were other brands with exceptionally designed packages, familiarity played a major role. First, how did I get familiar with it?
Everything started with the word “nudge”. Nudge means to prod or subtly push someone do something. The techniques include appreciation, comparison, provocation and a lot of other tricks under their sleeves. Behavior economists came up with this theory called Nudge theory; it has defined the marketing and political campaigns of our generation. Understanding the theory is essential for understanding why we make predictable irrational decisions in terms of consumer products as well as politics. It isn’t solely our ignorance that led to buying products in bulk that we might not even use or stocking up on mediocre products during offer season. We tend to make decisions based on external influences rather than arriving at the optimal decision. This seems insignificant but has its own set of consequences when it boils down to health and politics. To understand nudging, consider a well-advertised product to be low hanging fruit and the optimal product or fruit is on the highest branch of the same tree (need not be the case all the time). It takes effort to do the research and find the optimal product for us, the sourcing adds to another level of difficulty since the product might not be something dominating the market. The optimal fruit requires one to climb the tree while the low hanging fruit seems to be an easier option with a considerable bargain.
These techniques are mostly used for nudging someone to reduce energy consumption, recycling garbage, organ donation and other causes that benefits sustainability and quality lifestyle. We tend to buy healthier foods when placed close to the cash counters than junk foods placed far into a store. Schools around the world use nudging to help students choose healthier options than junk food. There are also other advertising enterprises that employ the same techniques on us for marketing purposes.
Nudge theory came under the scrutiny of ethicists who questioned the ethical aspects of its implementation. It is an ongoing conversation to segregate its ethical and unethical implementations. Nudge theory led theorists as well as advertising experts to create predictable models of human behavior that are based on heuristic tendencies of human beings.
The undesirable aspect of this theory is its relevance in predicting, influencing and reshaping political decisions. The increasingly predictable models help politicians exploit the general public in shaping their opinions on different political parties. It can easily be used against people by conservative or corrupt parties with the right resources to influence our capability to determine an optimal political decision based on evidence and analysis. There are several examples of political decisions pushed by marketing campaigns rather than fair questioning and analyzing by the people voting for it.
The lines are blurring between what it means to make decisions and be influenced to make one.
