IRJMSH Vol 13 Issue 11 [Year 2022] ISSN 2277 – 9809 (0nline) 2348–9359 (Print) International Research Journal of Management Sociology & Humanity ( IRJMSH ) Page 99 www.irjmsh.com Nudging towards Socially Acceptable and Environmentally Responsible Behavior Indu Choudhary and Pummy Yadav 1 Associate Professor, Department of Economics, Kalindi College, University of Delhi 2 Assistant Professor, Department of Economics, Kalindi College, University of Delhi Abstract Nudge is a concept in behavioral economics, political theory, and behavioral sciences which proposes positive reinforcement and indirect suggestions as ways to influence the behavior and decision-making of groups or individuals. In this paper, we undertake an experimental study where we make use of nudge as an instrument in motivating undergraduate students of a university towards socially acceptable and environmentally responsible behavior. The intervention is done at two stages: in the first, students are nudged through behaviorally informed messages, memes and posters; in the second stage, the effect of removal of nudge are examined. The study concludes that constant nudging compels students to modify their behavior in a socially desired manner. However, removal of the nudge causes a reversion in behavior. Keywords: nudge, discipline, environment, experiment 1. INTRODUCTION Drawing on the work of psychologists Daniel Kahneman and Amos Tversky that changed the way psychologists and eventually economists think about influencing human behaviour, nudging has been embraced by multiple disciplines. The founding father of the Nudge Theory is Richard Thaler, the U.S. economist, who was the winner of the 2017 Nobel Prize for economics. When the ‘choice architecture’ is designed to influence behavior in a predictable way but without restricting choice, it is called a “Nudge”. Cass Sunstein and Richard Thaler in their best seller Nudge: Improving Decisions About Health, Wealth, and Happiness have demonstrated that despite our cognitive biases, we can use human fallibility and the way we think to our advantage. Traditionally, economic policy advice has been based on the assumption that individuals act rationally within whatever constraints they face. Individuals have been assumed to have consistent preferences, and the satisfaction of those preferences has been taken as the appropriate criterion for evaluating alternative policies. Behavioural Economics is the growing body of research that imports into economic theories and experimental methods from psychology, and which is showing that individual decision-making is rather less rational than economists have usually assumed. The field of behavioral economics considers people as human beings who are subject to emotion and impulsivity, and who are influenced by their environments and circumstances. 2. EXPERIMENTAL STUDY There is a famous proverb “Haste makes waste” and youngsters these days are seen proving it now and then. The college-goers are all young students and this behavior is also evident in them. They