Why can nudges promote healthy behaviors?nudges from the viewpoint of economics

Abstract

This paper aims to provide an overview of behavioral economics and nudges for health promotion professionals.

Economics analyzes how limited resources can be allocated to increase satisfaction. Traditional economics models a “homo economicus” who always does his/her best to achieve the goals. Behavioral economics targets “human/homo sapiens” who knows the importance of health but cannot take healthy attitudes due to cognitive biases.

Nudges, derived from behavioral economics, are designed to encourage human beings to take desirable actions in accordance with the characteristics of cognitive biases. Nudge can promote healthy behaviors because the response of cognitive biases to information can be predicted with a certain probability. Nudges are more cost-effective than other interventions, and high effectiveness of default nudge has been reported. On the other hand, nudges have some limitations; they are not strong enough to maintain behaviors, and there are few studies in Japan.

Nudges are interventions which work on the automatic system, which means ethical considerations must be taken into account. When designing an intervention, it is necessary to carefully consider the possibility of sludge, that is elements of choice architecture consisting of frictions or obstacles that makes it harder for people making the choice to benefit.