| | |  | Mike Bonifer | Home » » Nudge: Improving Decisions About Health, Wealth, and Happiness | | | | | | | Description: | | Every day, we make decisions on topics ranging from personal investments to schools for our children to the meals we eat to the causes we champion. Unfortunately, we often choose poorly. The reason, the authors explain, is that, being human, we all are susceptible to various biases that can lead us to blunder. Our mistakes make us poorer and less healthy; we often make bad decisions involving education, personal finance, health care, mortgages and credit cards, the family, and even the planet itself. Thaler and Sunstein invite us to enter an alternative world, one that takes our humanness as a given. They show that by knowing how people think, we can design choice environments that make it easier for people to choose what is best for themselves, their families, and their society. Using colorful examples from the most important aspects of life, Thaler and Sunstein demonstrate how thoughtful “choice architecture” can be established to nudge us in beneficial directions without restricting freedom of choice. Nudge offers a unique new take—from neither the left nor the right—on many hot-button issues, for individuals and governments alike. This is one of the most engaging and provocative books to come along in many years.
| | | Features: | |
• ISBN13: 9780300122237
• Condition: NEW
• Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
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| | | Product Details: | | | Author:
| Richard H. Thaler | | Hardcover:
| 293 pages | | Publisher:
| Yale University Press | | Publication Date:
| April 08, 2008 | | Language:
| English | | ISBN:
| 0300122233 | | Package Length:
| 9.4 inches | | Package Width:
| 6.4 inches | | Package Height:
| 1.1 inches | | Package Weight:
| 1.3 pounds | | Average Customer Rating:
|  based on 117 reviews |
| | | | Customer Reviews: | |
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 Too timid and stretches definition of libertarianism too farNov 20, 2009
It was an interesting read but the authors' perception of libertarian paternalism stretches the definition of libertarian too far in my opinion. I did not find their policy targets to be especially interesting as subjects for discussion. They are far too timid. zZzzZZ What about choice architecture on my taxes? I would like to be able to opt out. But, this would not have made it through the editorial censors ("liberal" fascist ideology)
I was also annoyed with their incessant use of feminine pronouns...probably "suggested" by their feminist editor.
Thaler's other writings are far superior. This books makes use of status quo bias too much. There are a lot of biases they could have analyzed. What about Thaler's own work on mental accounting?
I think that you are better off reading Judgment in Managerial Decision Making. This is a book you read in the course Managerial Decision Making at uChicago's MBA program. Thaler teaches one of the sections.
Pudge- Why we should educate our fellow humans.Nov 10, 2009
Some interesting statistics that can be procured from the wealth of information our internet now provides us. The book is designed for "Econs" to read, but they would probably have more success writing a book about all the stuff "Humans" should be doing to stay ahead of the game. There is about 10% of valuable information in this book. The rest is just idealistic rambling. I found myself saying, "Well, thankfully I went to college and then off for my MBA and know better than the average "Human" to ignore things that can adversely affect my health, wealth, and happiness. Come on now, save your time and money on a better investment.
2 of 2 found the following review helpful:
 Homo Economicus Gives Way to Homo IrrationalusOct 27, 2009
The good part of this book is that it contains a lot of practical and nonpartisan policy advice, such as by requiring corporations to sign people up for the 401(k) by default and then letting them opt out. This is an example of what they mean by "nudge". You don't need to coerce people; since something has to be the default option you can at least give them intelligent defaults.
The bad side of the book is its poor understanding of human nature. Libertarian economists such as Gary Becker have been aggressively promoting free markets based on a mathematical vision of rational decision making. Needless to say, this vision could only apply to ultra-logical people like Mr. Spock - the notorious Homo economicus. The breakthroughs of behavioral economics teaches us that real people do not act like Mr. Spock. This book does an excellent job explaining the major findings of behavioral economics. But rather than try to understand the rich and powerful thought processes of real humans, most behavioral economists tilt towards the opposite extreme. They pronounce humans as irrational and filled with hidden biases. Homo economicus has been replaced by Homo irrationalus.
That's unfortunate because the real story of human nature is far more interesting. Consider the case of loss aversion (pp 33-34). In a classic experiment which has been replicated hundreds of times, students were randomly given free coffee mugs. The mug-less students were asked how much they would pay to get a mug and the students with mugs were asked how much they would want in order to sell their mugs. It turns out that students with mugs wanted an average of about twice as much as the mug-less students were willing to pay! This goes by the name of loss aversion, the endowment effect, and the status quo bias. It is labeled a bias because a self-respecting member of Homo economicus would think about how often he drinks coffee, how often he does the dishes, and how many mugs he currently has. Based on this analysis he would put a price on a new coffee mug. That price would not influence by whether or not he just got a mug for free. But in fact this behavior is rational. Richard Thaler and Cass Sunstein conclude that "loss aversion operates as a kind of cognitive nudge, pressing us not to make changes, even when changes are very much in our interests." (p.34)
The method behind our seemingly irrational madness is found in a classic problem in game theory - the game of hawks and doves. Hawk and dove are different strategies people can use when they are in a conflict over a prize. The prize could be anything. For butterflies it could be a sunlit leaf because male butterflies have more mating success when they occupy such a position. For feral horses it could be a pool of water (Herb Gintis reviews the literature in _The Bounds of Reason_). Doves are sharers. When two doves see a prize they will share it. When two hawks see a prize they will fight over it. When a hawk meets a dove the dove will yield the prize to the hawk. A world of all doves is basically a communist utopia where everyone shares everything. It is also efficient because people maximize the use of available resources (prizes). The problem is that it is not what biologists and game theorists call an evolutionary stable strategy. It can easily be invaded by hawks. The first person to switch to the hawk strategy will get the entire prize without cost wherever he goes. Over time more and more and people will play hawk. That's inefficient because the cost of fighting must be subtracted from the value of the prize.
We have a problem. A world with doves is efficient but unstable. A world with hawks is inefficient but stable. The evolutionary biologist John Maynard Smith found the answer - the bourgeois strategy. That means "play hawk when you own the prize and dove when someone else does." A world of bourgeoisie is efficient because it eliminates fighting as effectively as the dove strategy. It is also an evolutionary stable strategy that cannot be invaded by hawks. That's because hawks are basically parasites on doves - they need the free prizes to offset the cost of fighting. A necessary consequence of adopting the bourgeois strategy is that people will value prizes that they own more than prizes that other people own. That's the real reason for loss aversion. It is not a "bias" but an efficient and stable strategy that provides the strategic foundation for the rule of law. The cost of enforcing the law goes up with the number of people who are trying to break it. If people did not have a sense of loss aversion then there would be more useful trades - but there would also be conflict and fighting over prizes.
That is just one example and this is already a long review but these kinds of lessons underlie nearly all of the so-called "biases" that Thaler and Sunstein identify. If you want to learn about Homo economicus then pick up _The Economics of Life_ by Gary Becker. If you want to about Homo irrationalus then buy this book. But if you want to learn about Homo sapiens then you will need to look elsewhere. I recommend starting with Gut Feelings: The Intelligence of the Unconscious_ by Gerd Gigerenzer. It is the book that _Blink_ should have been. Then follow it up with Moral Sentiments and Material Interests: The Foundations of Cooperation in Economic Life (Economic Learning and Social Evolution) by Herb Gintis to understand strong reciprocity. Finish it up with The Bounds of Reason: Game Theory and the Unification of the Behavioral Sciences by the same author. It is technically a book on game theory and choice theory but you can easily skip over the math.
2 of 3 found the following review helpful:
 Moving others in their right direction and growing the pie rather than your slice of it!Oct 23, 2009
My first impression was Sunstein had gone into the self-help book business, but this is an incredible introduction to the power of policy making based on meaningful and well reasoned research.
Maybe it's too wonky for those not interested in policy making. Maybe it's not wonky enough for those who are in that field already. But for someone interested in better understanding and analyzing policies as an interested voter or for someone who cares about how their company's retirement plan changes (or inadequacies) will have a big impact on their co-workers or their community, this is an incredible resource!
They cover many topics as potentially benefiting from "nudges" which helps teach the reader through application in many fields and to various problems/dilemmas. I appreciate Sunstein's not-too-legal writing style as an attorney and as someone approaching a new subject; generally the writing is excellent and well organized.
Union members and leaders, plan administrators, or anyone creating a form or helping others make important, rare decisions - this is the spring board into leading, helping, and working better, with less effort, and with better results. Highly recommended for anyone who might have a chance to help change the policies at their office, in their community, and even in helping clients make informed/optimal decisions.
Interesting bookOct 18, 2009
The book was a bit long for the small amount of information covered. It would have held my attention better had so much detail not been included.
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