Nudge plus: incorporating reflection into behavioral public policy

Abstract

Nudge plus is a modification of the toolkit of behavioral public policy. It incorporates an element of reflection – the plus – into the delivery of a nudge, either blended in or made proximate. Nudge plus builds on recent work combining heuristics and deliberation. It may be used to design prosocial interventions that help preserve the autonomy of the agent. The argument turns on seminal work on dual systems, which presents a subtler relationship between fast and slow thinking than commonly assumed in the classic literature in behavioral public policy. We review classic and recent work on dual processes to show that a hybrid is more plausible than the default-interventionist or parallel-competitive framework. We define nudge plus, set out what reflection could entail, provide examples, outline causal mechanisms, and draw testable implications.

A review of nudges: Definitions, justifications, effectiveness

“…Rather than operating as substitutes, in some situations nudges and standard policies can complement each other. According to some scholars (e.g., Banerjee & John, 2021; Bhargava & Loewenstein, 2015; Loewenstein & Chater, 2017), in fact, nudges can be used to enhance the design and effectiveness of standard policies, and vice versa, resulting in what are termed “hybrid” (Loewenstein & Chater, 2017) or “nudge‐plus” policies (Banerjee & John, 2021).…”

Nudge in the time of coronavirus: Compliance to behavioural messages during crisis

“…It is not unreasonable to assume that self-persuasion will be more effective at increasing intention to adhere to guidelines after seeing certain types of social messages than others, or than self-persuasion alone. This is core to the nudge plus idea that the plus (the think) is presented alongside a classic nudge, so enhancing the nudge with the plus (see Banerjee and John 2021). This is similar to the argument in the boost literature (Hertwig and Grüne-Yanoff 2017) that the individual needs extra capacity and resources conveyed by the boost to respond to an information signal effectively.…”

“…Aronson, 1999;Müller et al, 2016a). Incorporation of a reflective or self-persuasive component into a nudge has been termed 'nudge plus' (Banerjee & John, 2021;Kardes et al, 2001a;Müller et al, 2016b;Stoker & John, 2019).…”

Nudging societally relevant behavior by promoting cognitive inferences

“…Others have recently also sought to nudge in ways that target more elaborate (goal-directed) cognitive processes rather than behavior directly. For instance, nudge plus interventions 42 combine typical nudges with an element of self-reflection that targets deliberative processes. Boosting interventions 27 and autonomy-enhancing paternalism interventions 43 target processes that promote the competence to engage in behavior that accords more with people’s goals.…”