Resources, Conservation and Recycling 79 (2013) 4–10 Contents lists available at SciVerse ScienceDirect Resources, Conservation and Recycling jo ur n al hom epa ge : www.elsevier.com/locate/resconrec Nudging citizens? Prospects and pitfalls confronting a new heuristic Alice Moseley a , Gerry Stoker b,* a Department of Politics, Amory Building, University of Exeter, Devon EX44RJ, United Kingdom b Politics and International Relations, School of Social Sciences, University of Southampton, Southampton SO171BJ, United Kingdom a r t i c l e i n f o Article history: Received 23 April 2012 Received in revised form 21 March 2013 Accepted 25 April 2013 Keywords: Nudge Behavioural economics Behavioural change a b s t r a c t New insights from psychology and behavioural economics have encouraged a paradigm shift in policy debates towards a focus on ‘Nudge’ strategies that are influenced by an understanding of the cognitive, social and even moral factors driving human decision making. In areas such as environmental policy Nudging holds considerable potential as a tool of government to help change citizen and corporate behaviour. This article notes the strong evidence base for Nudge strategies drawn from the extensive social science literature on how citizens make decisions. It shows, however, that translating behavioural insights into viable policy interventions is far from straightforward and that the powerful insights embed- ded within Nudge heuristics will be lost if advocates of Nudge fail to address the complexities and challenges entailed in their project. © 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. 1. Introduction Our starting point is the emerging argument that policy mak- ers have to develop new insights about how to approach citizens or perhaps re-emphasize ways of understanding that have been neglected. In an era where the state led, and citizens followed, com- mand and incentive based interventions were for much of the time good enough. But when seeking to develop a capacity for behaviour change among citizens in modern, atomized and non-deferential societies, not only are different tools required but also a different way of thinking: a sea change in our understanding of the micro- foundations of human behaviour. This message is at the heart of a book entitled Nudge by Thaler and Sunstein (2008). Another factor driving interest in new tools of intervention is the impact of eco- nomic downturn and austerity. The UK’s Institute for Government in an enthusiastic report about this new way of thinking and acting comments: ‘For policy-makers facing policy challenges such as crime, obe- sity, or environmental sustainability, behavioural approaches offer a potentially powerful new set of tools. Applying these tools can lead to low cost, low pain ways of ‘nudging’ citizens - or ourselves - into new ways of acting by going with the grain of how we think and act. This is an important idea at any time, but is especially relevant in a period of fiscal constraint’ (Dolan et al., 2010, p. 7). * Corresponding author. Tel.: +44 0238 059 7340. E-mail addresses: A.Moseley@exeter.ac.uk (A. Moseley), G.Stoker@soton.ac.uk (G. Stoker). Dolan et al. (2010) argue that a revolution in thinking is already well on the way and that policy-makers need to continue to move beyond the traditional tools of regulation, law and financial incen- tives. We start by noting how Nudge thinking challenges some of the traditional presumptions of public administration and public pol- icy. We continue by showing that there is a solid social science evidence base for such insights but in addition we argue that the implications for policy makers are not as straightforward as some Nudge advocates suggest. Turning Nudge insights into effective interventions requires a deep understanding of the political and social challenges involved. We argue that Nudges designed top- down by ‘smart’ experts may be of limited value and that there is a need for a more bottom-up process in translating Nudge insights into practice on the ground. 2. The emergence of the Nudge paradigm The assumption underlying much of classical public policy and administration is that individuals are rational in that they are capa- ble of reason and applying logic in their decisions and choices, and that they act to achieve their self-interest. Jackson (2005) com- ments in his review of understandings held by policy makers about how to change consumer and citizen behaviour that the rational actor model ‘is so widespread and so deeply entrenched in the insti- tutions and structures of modern (Western) society, that it tends to have an immediate familiarity to us’ (Jackson, 2005, p. 27). Thaler and Sunstein’s Nudge (2008) challenges the rationalist framing of human behaviour and has at its core a call for a heuris- tic sea-change. Policy makers need a new rule of thumb that sees citizens not as ‘homo economicus’ but rather as ‘homo sapiens’, 0921-3449/$ – see front matter © 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.resconrec.2013.04.008