Nudge.

A fantastic book, hailed by The Economist and the New York Times, Nudge: Improving Decisions About Health, Wealth, and Happiness is a resource worth annotating. It offers excellent insight into human behavior and our seemingly inherent aversion to change. Two of its major concepts, nudging and choice architecture, are highly relevant to any conversation on nutrition education and concern with getting people to eat better and consequently live a healthier life.

The concepts go hand-in-hand. Choice architecture refers to the way decision-making contexts are established. One example would be the way the cereal aisle is organized at a grocery store, or how the entire store is laid out, for that matter. Nudging a person, gently probing them in a direction, is something that can be done via choice architecture. Making option A bolder than option B on a form would be a nudge; you may be trying to get people to choose option B for some reason.

Nudging is effective because it doesn't incite resistance by pushing people too hard in a new direction, but in small steps and (hopefully) innocuous ways to shift people's thinking and behavior. That is the key: nudging is about getting people to choose for themselves to enact a behavior. A person may have been guided, but the action was ultimately the individual's decision.

A choice architect is someone responsible for setting the decision-making context for someone else. So, the person writing up the form or laying out the floor plan is a choice architect. When it comes to the people of Milwaukee, especially those using the FoodShare program, there seems to be a huge opportunity for providing information and guidelines that nudge. We have a captive audience of people who already need assistance, already need to walk through the door or go online to register for a QUEST card. Why not take these opportunities to nudge people toward making better selections at the grocery store and preparing more nutritious meals at home?

What kinds of information would Milwaukee citizens be most interested in utilizing: recipes, meal planning guides, shopping tips? How can we be better choice architects?

Reference

Thaler, R.H., & Sunstein, C.R. (2009). Nudge: Improving decisions about health, wealth, and happiness. NewYork: Penguin Books.