Nudge theory from behavioral economics has been popularized by Thaler and Sunstein in their 2008 book Nudge. Human decision making is predictably irrational and the context of social behavior (the ‘‘choice architecture’’) is highly influential, playing a key role in determining outcomes. This choice architecture can often be structured to guide or nudge (rather than compel) people into making better choices.
Nudging is successful because humans are limited in the resources they can devote to decision-making (e.g. time, information, and computational resources) and use heuristics to quickly select a few salient options when making decisions. Knowledge of how these predictable heuristics work allows others to exploit them, by influencing what is known as a ‘choice architecture’—a concept made famous by Richard Thaler and Cass Sunstein in their 2008 book ‘Nudge’. Thaler and Sunstein (2008) explore the various ways in which the choice behaviour of individuals can be affected by intervening on (i.e. “nudging”) how the various options are presented (i.e. the choice architecture).
As a result of the popularity of this concept a large number of popular nudges can be found in the literature, which includes: defaults (e.g. having some option preselected, such that no intervention by the user still results in a choice); simplification (e.g. ensuring forms, such as financial aid, are easy to understand); reminders (e.g. timely reminders that bills or appointments are due); personalization (e.g. a message that targets some personal characteristic of the user); framing and timing (e.g., by sending reminders and messages at a time when people are likely to be paying attention); uses of social norms (e.g., disclosure of how one’s energy use compares to that of one’s neighbors); and precommitment strategies (e.g. questions where people agree, in advance, to some course of action).
The following are examples of choice architecture suited for smartphone use intervention in the classroom.
Setting the default option in a set of choices
We know that hot-water heaters shipped preset at a lower temperature reduce the risk of household scalds. People are free to increase the temperature of their water, but most will not—so why not select this safer default option? In a similar manner, using software, students smartphones could be set with certain defaults when they are in class.
Offering ‘‘self-contracting’’ to support behavior change
Examples include automatic payroll deduction to enforce savings and self imposed gambling bans for persons trying to break a habit.
A simple example to reduce smartphone distraction would be the use of a key or setting on their smartphones that students could opt to engage when ready to make a behavior change but would be hard to defeat if their self control should falter and they are tempted to allow themselves to be distracted by their smartphones. For example, the setting stays on for a set limit of time or requiring teacher or parent to disengage it.
Presenting or organizing information in a novel manner
Public health agencies use this technique to motivate the behavior of restaurant owners by posting health and sanitation ‘‘grades’’ in a conspicuous place. Smartphone displays could include ‘‘distraction meters’’ showing the risk associated with talking or texting. A red bar on the smartphone display or a warning message might just be the digital nudge that the student needs to get back on task.
Digital nudges
Digital nudges are online implementations of their physical counterparts. Adaptive nudges are digital nudges refined by a software agent through relevance feedback, and adapt to different models of individual users.
One particular adaptive nudge, which has grown in commercial popularity, is the use of psychometrics to infer (from behavioural signals) the personality traits of users, and to use this knowledge to design tailored content. Studies have shown that adaptive nudging, a technique readily deployed by software agents can significantly control a human user’s behaviour (Matz & Netzer, 2017; Matz et al. 2017).
Adaptive nudging can also be used to help user’s achieve their own goals. Consider the increased use of wearable technology for health and well-being. Many of these devices are designed to be worn 24/7, are equipped with a variety of sensors (e.g. accelerometers, bioimpedance sensors, and temperature sensors), and have access to huge streams of behavioral data.
Nudges that encourage excessive consumption of online entertainment, particularly if aimed at children or users prone to addictive behaviors, leads to the possibility for users to develop a behavioral addiction to technology and social media.
Good vibrations – a digital nudge
Okeke et al. (2018) describes a study that illustrates choice architecture to nudge users to reduce their Facebook use. The authors describe their implementation as “a generalizable mobile intervention that combines nudge theory and negative reinforcement to create a subtle, repeating phone vibration that nudges a user to reduce their digital consumption” (Okeke et al. 2018, p. 1) that can be applied to a number of settings including to nudge students to get back on task or reduce their social media use at certain times, such as during exam week.
For example, if a user has a daily Facebook limit of 30 minutes but opens Facebook past this limit, the user’s smartphone will issue gentle vibrations every five seconds, but the vibration stops once the user navigates away from Facebook.
Digital nudges are “nudges that are provided via digital technologies” (Okeke et al. 2018, p. 2). Digital nudges can be in the form text messages, status-bar messages, pop-ups, phone vibration, and phone LED display.
In this particular study, digital nudge was combined with negative reinforcement. Negative reinforcement refers to the strengthening of a behavior by avoiding a negative outcome or aversive stimulus. This process involves behavioral learning based on personal experiences over time and it provides a high potential for successful behavior change. One common example of negative reinforcement is when a driver starts a car without putting on the seat belt. This leads to a repeating beep sound in the car until the seat belt is worn to stop the irritating sound. When the driver enters the car in the future, the seat belt is immediately worn due to learned behavior to avoid the aversive beeping sound. Another example is when an individual’s phone vibrates every time a distracting app is used but vibration ceases immediately the user stops using the distracting app.
The authors of the study reported that digital nudge was successful in getting users to pay attention to their personal usage habits of social media.