In 2010 David Cameron set up a new government department called the Behavioural Insights Team. Its aim was to produce research that would help run the country better. It is also known as ‘the nudge unit’ after a book with the same name (see Further reading).
Nudge argues that many human decisions are based on faulty logic and lead to predictable mistakes. For example, people often believe certain things (such as ‘junk food is bad for you’) but fail to put these beliefs into practice. The authors of Nudge argued that people can lead longer and better lives if their decisions are gently ‘nudged’ in the right direction. So, junk food might be placed on supermarket shelves which are not at eye level or organ donation should be opt out rather than opt in.
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