Nudge is a choice book that shows you how you can unconsciously make better decisions by designing your environment so it nudges you in the right direction every time temptation becomes greatest. Nudge was co-authored by Cass Sunstein, who taught law for 27 years and worked in the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs under Obama from 2009 to 2012. A default is a very powerful nudge, as it requires you to actively object for it to work. For example, if you send an email and type something like “please find attached” or “I’ll attach the file” in the email’s body and you then forget to upload the actual attachment, Gmail automatically prompts you with “Did you want to send an attachment with this?”. States and large institutions can use nudges to spur wise decisions at scale and make life better for everyone.
A nudge at scale costs a bit to set up, but its effects usually kick in fast. For example, since it’s become mandatory to report carbon emissions, the emissions themselves have gone down significantly – just because companies have to be transparent, they naturally compete to be eco-friendly.
Random Citizen 