Commentary
Power to the people
It seems almost impossible at the moment to open a newspaper without reading a discussion of the thoughts of Richard H. Thaler and Cass R. Sunstein (improbable though it sounds, the last is not apparently a nom de plume) and their discussions of the causes of behaviour change. Their best known work, supposedly one of David Cameron’s favourites, is Nudge: Improving Decisions About Health, Wealth, and Happiness (Yale University Press, 2008). Nudge discusses how public and private organizations can help people make better choices in their daily lives. "People often make poor choices - and look back at them with bafflement!" Thaler and Sunstein write. "We do this because as human beings, we all are susceptible to a wide array of routine biases that can lead to an equally wide array of embarrassing blunders in education, personal finance, health care, mortgages and credit cards, happiness, and even the planet itself."
The reaction to this sort of theorizing is often to observe, as did the Duke of Wellington when addressed as Mr Smith: “If you believe that you will believe anything” but for all its modishness Nudge should not be dismissed out of hand. It describes methods of persuasion which play to people’s intelligent understanding of where their interest lies rather than depending on hectoring or bullying. Assuming that people are adults, capable of taking responsibility, is not a bad premise. It is basically the thinking underlying intelligent energy displays, which provide the data that consumers can use to manage their own power usage, and surely the more empowerment of this sort we see in society the better.
