Richard thaler & Cass Sustein - Nudge

Choice architecture is a restaurant receipt inclusive of tipping options with the understanding that most people will opt out of mental math and choose the middle option. Spacing rumble strips closer together tricks drivers into thinking they're speeding up, nudging the mind into breaking before sharp turns. Default saving behaviors mean missed opportunities for retirement planning, but most people will contribute if you structure a plan requiring them to opt out rather than opt in.

How we make things easy or hard for people to do is what makes any policy effective, and affecting that through the lens of behavioral economics is what won Richard Thaler his Nobel Prize all those years ago. He's trail-blazed this science of decision-making, countering those who say choice architecture paradoxically limits choice by arguing with the analogy about how cafeteria food is laid out. Nobody balks at veggies being up front, dessert all the way at the end. Whoever displays the food has to put the food in some sort of order, so why not make it easier for people to pick what's better for them.

The old guard of Adam Smith and Milton Friedman and John Stuart Mill imagine our species as a Homo Economicus always making rational decisions with all available information. In their defense, they weren't around to see science reverse engineer heuristics and biases that show our brains are built to decide thru patterns and with as little effort as possible. People decide with defaults, and do whatever makes things easier for them to do. We know what's good for health and wealth, so here's Nudge's final edition to push you in the right direction.