Nudging legally: On the checks and balances of behavioral regulation

The Institutional Consequences of Nudging – Nudges, Politics, and the Law

“…The task of this body would be to represent a broad variety of societal and legal concerns, as well as diverse academic and scientific perspectives and to oversee the conformity of nudges generally (not just default rules) to constitutional and basic legal principles. This goes beyond calls for the rigorous evaluation of nudging instruments (through RCTs and Bregulatory impact assessments^) as proposed by Alemanno and Spina (2014).…”

“…Further, we think that an effective way of making nudges more visible is to provide a legal registry of nudges, especially of those which are not a part of a legal system. We are also sympathetic to proposals made that expand the traditional scope of judicial review for the purpose of assessing nudging policies (Alemanno and Spina 2014). This would require taking into account the broader context in which nudges are to be implemented and may also spur a debate about the constitutional limits to reliance on nudges for different bodies of law in society.…”

Overcoming Innovation Resistance beyond Status Quo Bias - A Decision Support System Approach (Research-in-Progress)

“…Nudging towards environmental conservation behavior, for instance, can take the form of placing consumptiondependent emoticons on energy bills -or information about one's own and the neighbors' average consumption. Being compared with their neighbors encourages households towards consuming less energ y [49], [57], [67]. Organ donation is another example which shows the efficacy of choice architecture.…”

Overcoming Illusions of Control: How to Nudge and Teach Regulatory Humility

“…This guidance (the impact assessment guidelines) should certainly include information on how those who are regulated respond to policy interventions. To some extent, whole segments of the impact assessment procedure, such as problem definition, regulatory options, benefits and costs, and macro-economic estimations should be calibrated and modified by using the insights of the behavioural sciences (Alemanno and Spina, 2013;Van Bavel et al, 2013). The interest in behavioural science is key to the current efforts of the US and European governments to moderate 'irritating' burdens and 'perceptions of administrative obligations'.…”

“…In the debate of how to conduct impact assessment and train policymakers, there are calls for integrating the insights of behaviour science into policymaking and design regulatory options that take into account the various biases that affect citizens' responses (Alemanno and Spina, 2013;John, 2013;John et al, 2013;Jones et al, 2013;Sunstein, 2011;Van Bavel et al, 2013;Vandebergh, Carrico and Schultz, 2011). But policymakers have a mind too, and therefore their own choices can be biased (see for example Montgomery, 2011).…”