NUDGE Theory - what?

You know when you're driving down the street and a digital sign flashes your speed back to you? "Oh, I'm speeding", you think to yourself, "maybe I should slow down."

That’s a nudge.

It could have been a cop pulling you over and reprimanding you for going too fast. Or it could have been a poster saying, "Speed Kills" or "Caution, my kids play here". Instead, it was a sign that simply displayed your speed - without shaming or threatening you - and allowed you to decide what that information means to you.

Nudge theory goes as far back as the '70s. Originally expressed so eloquently by a pair of Nobel Prize-winning psychologists from Israel, it appeared again in a popular book called Nudge in 2008. It is the foundation of Behavioural Economics and the psychology of how humans make decisions. However, it can be adapted and applied more broadly for enabling and encouraging all manners of change in people, groups, or even yourself, and can be used when influencing change in a non-autocratic and more powerful way.

Nudge theory is all about the "design of choices" which influence the decisions we make. The theory proposes that the designing of choices should be based on how people actually think and decide, rather than how leaders - or, say, advertisers - believe people think and decide. Logic and rationality are wonderful things, but they are largely academic and contrived, as it turns out. Assuming people choose based on linear and progressive logic is probably the biggest mistake most governments, authorities and yes – marketers – make daily.

Many years ago, I was working on the launch of the MINI automobile in Canada. If we believed the research and verbatim responses from recent buyers, we would declare that the reason people choose a MINI is that it's a practical way to get around town, it's good on gas and it has a surprising amount of trunk space. Everyone knows that those are not the reasons people buy a MINI. They might be some of the rationalizations their logical mind uses to justify their choice, but it's not what made them choose the car in the first place. I can see the campaign right now: "Buy a MINI! Great on gas! More trunk room than you'd expect and the perfect size for driving in the crowded city!" Nope, that wouldn't do it.

In this respect, Nudge theory is a radically different and more sophisticated approach to achieving change or creating new behaviours in people than traditional methods of direct instruction, persuasion, or coercion. That's why advertising or promotion is such a good example!

Think about the traditional way brands try to create a choice or new behaviour in their prospective buyers. Tell them that our product has extra cleaning power versus other competitors, or that it goes faster or is better made. Tell them that other people love it, so why shouldn't they? Get a professional athlete to imply that they also use it, so that people who love the athlete will want to try it too. Tell them stuff! Inform them! Educate them about our product! Then as logic will follow, they will surely buy it, right? Not always.

Nudge theory accepts that people have certain pre-existing attitudes, knowledge, biases and ingrained behaviours. It allows for and cooperates with these factors. Take the opening example, for instance, that people tend to drive faster than the speed limit. Nudge theory is based on understanding and allowing for the reality of situations and human tendencies. This permits people to be people, as opposed to logic-sponges who will change their behaviour just because you have given them somewhat crucial information.

Here's a good quote:

"Nudge theory enables the analysis, improvement and design or re-design of influences on people's thinking and decision-making, according to how people make decisions (instinctively), rather than according to how leaders and policy-makers tend to think that people make decisions (logically and obediently, like robots), extending to the appropriate use of these ‘thinking systems’ in given situations."

(A Chapman, Businessballs.com 2014)

That's why you're reading about Nudge Theory here at Midfield. We are in the business of creating, transforming and encouraging new behaviours, managing change and navigating the choices that human beings make. Not because we told them stuff and advertised something at them, but because we first understood them and attempted to influence them the way humans become influenced.

The process of changing a mind requires a journey and a shift in behaviour, not just the exchange of information. It is a deeply personal and human experience, rather than some "time and space" campaign of marketing jingles, advertising, and promotional messages.

Experience first. Ads last.