Nudge

Improving Decisions About Health, Wealth, and Happiness

By: Richard H. Thaler, Cass R. Sunstein

Narrated by: Sean Pratt

Length: 10 hrs and 35 mins

Publisher's summary

Every day, we make decisions on topics ranging from personal investments to schools for our children to the meals we eat to the causes we champion. Unfortunately, we often choose poorly. The reason, the authors explain, is that, being human, we are all susceptible to various biases that can lead us to blunder. Our mistakes can make us poor and unhealthy. We often make bad decisions about education, personal finance, health care, family, and the environment.

Thaler and Sunstein invite us to enter an alternative world, one that accepts that we are only human. They show that by knowing how people think, we can design choice environments that make it easier for people to choose what is best for themselves, their families, and their society. Using colorful examples from the most important aspects of life, Thaler and Sunstein demonstrate how thoughtful "choice architecture" can be established to nudge us in beneficial directions without restricting freedom of choice. Nudge offers a unique new take - from neither the left nor the right - on many hot-button issues, for individuals and governments alike. This is one of the most engaging and provocative audiobooks to come along in many years.

Download the accompanying reference guide.

©2008 Richard H. Thaler and Cass R. Sunstein (P)2008 Gildan Media Corp

Critic reviews

"A manifesto for using the recent behavioral research to help people, as well as government agencies, companies and charities, make better decisions." ( The New York Times Magazine)

Homo Economicus is dead

In the book: Great book on choice architecture and libertarian paternalism. Discussion on Medicare Part D, Mortgages, and Privatization of Social Security (among other things). Highly recommended.

Outside the book: Homo Economicus (the rational human with the computational brain power to make the most efficient decision on absolutely everything) is dead. This should effect and utterly obliterate the efficient-market hypothesis and most anything based outside of behavioral economics, but hasn't.

How to improve health, wealth and happiness!

I highly recommend this audio book to anyone who is open to new thoughts and ideas and is interested in the principles of choice architecture. The authors put forth many low cost ideas that could result in major life improvements. I found it fascinating and very entertaining.

Starts hot, ends hot

The 1st few and last few chapters are great.

The middle section is a bit “long in the tooth” but makes the case understood.

Enjoyed the insights.

A Book I Keep Coming Back To

Improving Decisions about Health, Wealth, and Happiness by Richard H. Thaler, Cass R. Sunstein covers many of the same studies and experiments, and then puts a public policy slant on the conclusions. I'm finding in these sorts of books that the same academic studies and examples pop-up time after time, which is good as it takes me about 5 times to get them straight. Where Sway helped me understand why I'm susceptible to make bad decisions, Nudge helped me understand how I can use the principles of "choice architecture" to influence events and decisions. Both worthwhile reads for folks like us who have a vision of education we are trying to implement, both in terms of why people do things the way they do, and some "libertarian paternalistic" ways to shape decisions and actions.

New Knowledge for Me!

This is all new for me, and well worth the time it took to listen to. Unlike many self-motivation books available (I mistakenly thought that is what "Nudge" is), I found this one to be actually motivating, and quite empowering. It became a bit tedious towards the end--as though the author was more into convincing me that he has correct opinions that into teaching me about choices and choicemaking, but I'd hardly call that a problem: I can weed out the bits of information that don't work. Happily, most of them do.

I liked the first half.

I liked the concept of a nudge. The author's political viewpoints and recommendations distracted from this towards the end of the book.

Great ideas about encouraging people.

Some of what is covered in this book is found elsewhere. But the main point I found intriguing. How do you nudge or encourage people to do the right thing? Studying the natural tendencies of people is worthwhile. When behavior is shocking, maybe it shouldn't be.

excelente

un libro para abrir la mente sobre temas muy rutinarios. vale la pena la lectura.

Interesting but too long

The theory and content is interesting but could just as well be communicated in half the length.

Nudge is too long

I enjoyed half the book but it dragged half way through repeating the same concept in different situations. Some may like the application of their theory but for me I ended up skipping some sections.