Give a Little Nudge to Prompt Positive Outcomes

Volume 18 • Issue 1 • August 2019

Give a Little Nudge to Prompt Positive Outcomes

Brad Garner

Director of Faculty Enrichment, National & Global Campus Indiana Wesleyan University brad.garner@indwes.edu

In the advent of ongoing conversations about growth mindset, educators have been paying increased attention to the concept of the nudge as a way of helping students to improve their performance 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).

One of the most famous nudges appeared at Amsterdam Schiphol Airport, where a decal of a fly was placed in the urinals in the men’s restrooms. The intention was to improve the “aim” of men using the urinals. Airport administrators noted an 80% improvement in cleanliness (Evans-Pritchard, 2013).

Nudges in Higher Education

Thaler and Sunstein (2008) have described nudges as part of the “choice architecture” of our lives. This involves thinking about how choices are presented to potential consumers and creating every opportunity for them to select the options that will be most helpful and productive for them. The important thing to remember in this process is that there is always a choice to be made.

Consider students’ role in higher education. As instructors, we want them to remain in college, pursue their goals and dreams, master course content, and succeed after graduation. Sometimes their choices do not align with these outcomes, however. The challenge for instructors is to create a choice architecture that promotes student success. Faculty can quickly and easily nudge students toward higher levels of performance in the following ways:

Micro-affirmations. Rowe (2008) defined micro-affirmations as “apparently small acts, which are often ephemeral and hard-tosee, events that are public and private, often unconscious but very effective, which occur wherever people wish to help others to succeed” (p. 45). As defined, these words and actions of encouragement take little effort. They mostly require remaining present and actively looking for ways to encourage students and commend them for their efforts. Instructors can deliver microaffirmations in person or through written notes, texts, or emails. Examples include:

“I see you’re making progress in this area.”

"I'm concerned about you. Please come visit me during office hours."

“That was a great comment you made in class today.”

“Great work on that presentation.”

Deadlines and reminders. Setting and announcing deadlines is another example of a nudge. As a complement to deadlines, we can nudge students a bit by reminding them about approaching due dates. Such reminders can take the form of announcements posted in the learning management system or in text messages, emails, or comments made at the end of class. We are all busy, and these brief reminders serve to help students stay on track with their academic requirements.

Text-based questions. As faculty, we all want students to perform well and master the content of our courses. Devers et al. (2018) created a mechanism for texting students quiz questions throughout the week as reminders about the latest topics. On occasion, students were asked to respond to the questions and prompts as a pathway to extra credit. These text messages served as a nudge to recall and commit to memory the week’s content. Overall, student performance

Big-picture nudges. The college learning experience typically is a series of peaks and valleys, as students celebrate their successes and then find themselves struggling with new and challenging course or program requirements. Damgaard and Nielsen (2018) suggest that nudges (e.g., stories about students who struggled and then succeeded, texts affirming personal values, encouragement that grades typically improve as students adjust to college) can positively impact social belonging (e.g., I am qualified and able to be successful in college), identity activation (e.g., I am a capable learner), and growth mindset (e.g., This work is hard, but I can persist and succeed).

Nudges can pay great benefits and promote student success. Look for opportunities to nudge someone today!

REFERENCES

Damgaard, M. T., & Nielsen, H. S. (2018). Nudging in education. Economics of Education Review, 64, 313-342. doi:10.1016/j.econedurev.2018.03.008

Devers, C. J., Leonard, S., Devers, E. E., Tripp, S., Leonard, J., Johnson, A., & Alayan, A. J. (2018, April). Using text messaging to improve student learning. Paper presented at the Midwestern Psychological Association, Chicago, IL.

Dockterman, D. (2017, October 17). Can we nudge students to be better learners? [Blog post]. from https://www.hmhco.com/blog/can-we-nudge-students-to-be-better-learners

Evans-Pritchard, B. (2013, Winter). Aiming to reduce cleaning costs. Works That Work. Retrieved from https://worksthatwork.com/1/urinal-fly

Payne, C. R., Niculescu, M., Just, D. R., & Kelly, M. P. (2016). This way to produce: Strategic use of arrows on grocery floors facilitate produce spending without increasing shopper budgets. Journal of Nutrition Education and Behavior, 48(7), 512-513. doi:10.1016/j.jneb.2016.05.001

Richard, S. (2018, April 20). 10 examples of nudge theory [Blog post]. Retrieved from https://www.skipprichard.com/10-examples-of-nudge-theory/

Rowe, M. (2008). Microaffirmations & microinequities. Journal of the International Ombudsman Association, 1(1), 45-48.

Thaler, R. H., & Sunstein, C. S. (2008). Nudge: Improving decisions about health, wealth, and happiness. New York, NY: Penguin.

Wansink, B., Payne, C. R., Herbst, K. C., & Soman, D. (2013). Part carts: Assortment allocation cues that Increase fruit and vegetable purchases. Journal of Nutrition, Education, and Behavior, 45(4), S42. doi:10.1016/j.jneb.2013.04.114