Volume 18
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Issue 1
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august 2019
The Toolbox
A Teaching and Learning Resource for Instructors
Give a Little Nudge to Prompt Positive Outcomes i
n the advent of ongoing conversations about Brad Garner Director of Faculty Enrichment, growth mindset, educators have been paying National & Global Campus increased attention to the concept of the nudge as Indiana Wesleyan University a way of helping students to improve their performance brad.garner@indwes.edu levels and achieve personal goals. While the theory behind nudges can be found in the behavioral sciences, political theory, and economics, it gained popular attention with the book Nudge: Improving Decisions About Health, Wealth, and Happiness (Thaler & Sunstein, 2008). The authors defined a nudge as Any aspect of the choice architecture that alters people’s behavior in a predictable way without forbidding any options or significantly changing their economic incentives. To count as a mere nudge, the intervention must be easy and cheap to avoid. Nudges are not mandates. Putting fruit at eye level counts as a nudge. Banning junk food does not. (p. 6)
Dockterman (2017) proposed that nudges are a constant part of our lives and generally result in positive outcomes and productive behaviors. For example: »» When portions of grocery store shopping carts were painted green and designated as the location for placing fruits and vegetables (i.e., “assortment allocation cues,” p. 2), shoppers spent 102% more on fruits and vegetables (Wansink, Payne, Herbst, & Soman, 2013). »» A different grocery store placed large green mats on the floor to direct shoppers to the produce department. Sales of produce as a portion of total food purchases, increased by 15.5% (Payne, Niculescu, Just, & Kelly, 2016). »» In countries where organ donation is an opt-in program, roughly 30% routinely choose to participate.When people are automatically enrolled as organ donors and have to opt out, only about 15% chose to do so (Richard, 2018). Changing the default option can dramatically impact participation in such programs (Thaler & Sunstein, 2008). National Resource Center for The First-Year Experience® and Students in Transition, University of South Carolina
Each person holds so much power within themselves that needs to be let out. Sometimes they just need a little nudge, a little direction, a little support, a little coaching, and the greatest things can happen.
— Pete Carroll, head coach, Seattle Seahawks, NFL
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