The Choice Architect’s Trilemma

Mills, Christopher E.

doi:10.1007/s11158-017-9363-4

Cited by 8 publications

(5 citation statements)

References 25 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…Illustratively, Floridi (2016) argues there is a trade-off between the effectiveness and the easy resistibility of nudges. A similar argument can be found in Mills (2018).…”

Section: Ethical Issue: Autonomysupporting

confidence: 82%

Nudge in perspective: A systematic literature review on the ethical issues with nudging

Kuyer

Gordijn

2023

Rationality and Society

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

In this article, we systematically review the literature on the ethics of nudging. Since the publication of the book Nudge by Richard Thaler and Cass Sunstein in 2008, a rich literature has been developed on the question whether it is ethical to nudge people. This is an important area for research as nudges are commonly used by governments and private corporations to alter the behaviour of citizens and consumers. In order to gain a complete overview of this literature, we conduct a systematic search of academic sources. We investigate which ethical issues with nudging are discussed. We find four major ethical issues, namely worries regarding 1) autonomy, 2) welfare, 3) long-term adverse effects, and 4) democracy and deliberation. We discuss each ethical issue by highlighting how it is defined, what the critique constitutes, what its sub-issues are, and which defences of nudging have been argued for. In this way, the systematic literature review provides a comprehensive overview of the literature on the ethics of nudging to date. The results of our systematic review contribute to a better understanding of the ethical issues with nudging, as well as of the current state of the literature on these topics.

show abstract

“…Illustratively, Floridi (2016) argues there is a trade-off between the effectiveness and the easy resistibility of nudges. A similar argument can be found in Mills (2018).…”

Section: Ethical Issue: Autonomysupporting

confidence: 82%

Nudge in perspective: A systematic literature review on the ethical issues with nudging

Kuyer

Gordijn

2023

Rationality and Society

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…One defining condition of a nudge is that its effects must be easy for the targeted individual to reverse. Rebonato (2012; see also Mills, 2018) argued that nominal reversibilitythat is, reversibility in principleis not the same as reversibility in practice. He suggested that there may even be a trade-off between a nudge's effectiveness and its reversibility.…”

Section: Reversibilitymentioning

confidence: 99%

Self-nudging and the citizen choice architect

Reijula

Hertwig

2020

Behav. Public Policy

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

This article argues that nudges can often be turned into self-nudges: empowering interventions that enable people to design and structure their own decision environments – that is, to act as citizen choice architects. Self-nudging applies insights from behavioral science in a way that is practicable and cost-effective, but that sidesteps concerns about paternalism or manipulation. It has the potential to expand the scope of application of behavioral insights from the public to the personal sphere (e.g., homes, offices, families). It is a tool for reducing failures of self-control and enhancing personal autonomy; specifically, self-nudging can mean designing one's proximate choice architecture to alleviate the effects of self-control problems, engaging in education to understand the nature and causes of self-control problems and employing simple educational nudges to improve goal attainment in various domains. It can even mean self-paternalistic interventions such as winnowing down one's choice set by, for instance, removing options. Policy-makers could promote self-nudging by sharing knowledge about nudges and how they work. The ultimate goal of the self-nudging approach is to enable citizen choice architects’ efficient self-governance, where reasonable, and the self-determined arbitration of conflicts between their mutually exclusive goals and preferences.

show abstract

“…For instance, Sunstein (1996) argues, 'Many well-known anomalies in human behavior are best explained by reference to social norms and to the fact that people feel shame when they violate those norms' (p. 909). Mills (2018) has also contributed to this discussion, noting that the use of significant social incentives in nudging does not violate the concept of liberty as set out by J.S. Mill.…”

Section: Social Scorn and Stigmamentioning

confidence: 96%

Nudge/sludge symmetry: on the relationship between nudge and sludge and the resulting ontological, normative and transparency implications

Mills

2020

Behav. Public Policy

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

A recent development within nudge theory is the concept of sludge, which imposes frictions on decision-making. Nascent literature adopts a normative interpretation of sludge: nudge good, sludge bad. However, this normative interpretation leaves much to be desired. A clear definition and treatment of sludge remains absent from this literature, as is a complete understanding of ‘frictions’. Furthermore, the relationship between nudges and sludges is unclear. This paper proposes the concept of nudge/sludge symmetry in an attempt to advance the conceptual understanding of sludge. Building from the definition of a nudge, three types of friction permissible under nudge theory are identified: hedonic, social and obscurant. Sludge is then positioned, in terms of frictions, relative to nudge: nudges decrease relative frictions, sludges increase relative frictions. A consequence of this proposition is nudge/sludge symmetry – where a nudge decreases the frictions associated with a specific option, sludge is simultaneously imposed on all other options available to a decision-maker. Nudge/sludge symmetry subsequently challenges the normative interpretation of sludge, and so a new framework drawing on the literature on nudges in the private sector is offered, with the choice architect placed at the centre. This new approach to sludge and emphasis on the role of the choice architect, in turn, reaffirms the importance of transparency in public policy interventions.

show abstract

The Choice Architect’s Trilemma

Cited by 8 publications

References 25 publications

Nudge in perspective: A systematic literature review on the ethical issues with nudging

Nudge in perspective: A systematic literature review on the ethical issues with nudging

Self-nudging and the citizen choice architect

Nudge/sludge symmetry: on the relationship between nudge and sludge and the resulting ontological, normative and transparency implications

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About