The four muses of nudge
Humans. We didn't evolve to make logical decisions. We evolved to survive. The very traits that enabled us to get this far lead us down all sorts of rabbit holes and seemingly irrational decisions, everyday. That's 95% of the time! To change behaviour, we have to understand this irrationality, the auto-pilot that is the driver of most of our decisions.
THe Theory part
Let’s think about the brain as having had two stages of development - one is new, the other is… well, ancient. Our newest brain – the homo sapiens brain - “thinking brain” or “executive brain” is responsible for our rational thoughts, analytical thinking and language. However our limbic brain, the part that’s been around way longer, is driven by trust, belief and emotions.
In the modern context, we can think of our limbic brain as our auto-pilot. Everyday we are reacting to the situations, scenes and decision we face using the emotions, cues and patterns that are right in front of us. We notice images, consistency and patterns, and discrepencies and bizarreness. We assume we’re right. We choose the easiest thing. We edit our memories down, we generalize. We fill in the gaps.
What does this mean for our decisions, our choices? No matter how rational and deliberate we want to be, our auto-pilot dominates. Most of the time, our emotional limbic-brain response is likely to influence us.
An often quoted analogy is that of the rider and the elephant. The elephant is going to do what it is going to do. The rider may have other designs, but the force of the elephant is greater.
“The mind is divided in many ways, but the division that really matters is between conscious/reasoned processes and automatic/implicit processes. These two parts are like a rider on the back of an elephant. The rider’s inability to control the elephant by force explains many puzzles about our mental life, particularly why we have such trouble with weakness of will. Learning how to train the elephant is the secret of self-improvement.””
Everyday we depend on our autopilot, or our limbic brain, to survive. This autopilot is also known as System 1: Fast, Automatic, Frequent, Emotional, Sterotypic, and Subconscious. But there are also times when we activate our thinking, or executive brain. Known as System 2, we can characterise this thinking as Slow, Effortful, Infrequent, Logical, Calculating, and Conscious.
BEHAVIOURAL TERMS DEFINED
In this landscape of understanding behaviour through the two systems, there are a few terms to know about.
Behavioural Economics is the study of why we make decisions considered “irrational” in traditional economics, and how decisions can be influenced.
Behavioural Insights refers to the practice of understanding how people make decisions, and what that means for behaviour change.
Behavioural Design is what happens at the intersection of Behavioural Economics and Design, it’s is designing for people from an understanding of the decisions that they make.
Cognitive biases are the mental shortcuts that help us to make decisions without being overwhelmed.. Heuristics is another word used interchangedly for cognitive biases.
SO NUDGING COMES IN…?
The reality is that we can't get rid of cognitive biases. We are hardwired to rely on these mental shortcuts. The good news? The better we understand them, the more we can work with them for the benefit of the individual and society.
Thanks to behavioural science, we know that the decisions we make on auto-pilot are influenced by the context. The context or environment includes where we are, who we are with, what time it is, what we are looking at, what sounds we hear, what other people are doing. All these contextual factors are big influences on our decision making. To impact decision making, we can change aspects of the context, and that’s called nudging.
Nudging involves helping people to make better decisions, by changing the context. Changes that we make in the environment that the limbic brain, our auto-pilot responds to. That our elephant responds to.
A classic example of nudge is the experiment conducted by Volkswagen Fun Theory. To get people to choose walking up stairs instead of taking an escalator, they made the stairs more attractive. The surprising change to the environment encouraged more people to take the stairs as it was more fun and pleasurable to do so.
Cognitive biases
The number of cognitive biases, or mental shortcuts, can be rather overwhelming. The Cognitive Bias codex is a single source that organises most of the already documented biases in one framework.
Understanding all the factors that could be affecting decision making requires us to juggle too many possibilities - many potential biases, at once. It’s easier to group the biases and come up with some rules of thumb that help us move from diagnosing the presence of the bias, to ideating on how to address it.
From the Behavioural Insights Team, supporting the UK government, to consultancies specialising in behavioural economics, and scholarly endeavours, there are now numerous frameworks and tools that help with the task of diagnosing biases and ideating with an understanding of the biases. These tools make it easier for us to understand behavioural economics and apply the collective wisdom to design better experiences and solutions for people.
Among all the current models and frameworks, the EAST model developed by the Behavioural Insights Team is one of the most user friendly and widely adopted. Having worked with this and other models, we’ve come up with what we think is an easy way to group cognitive biases and help us solution (nudge) for them.
THE FOUR MUSES
Meet the four muses of nudge: The kinder teacher. The charming friend. The social anchor. The time traveller. Putting ourselves in the shoes of each muse, we can ask ourselves how to design from that viewpoint. Working with our innate mental shortcuts can be so much easier.
The kindergarten teacher knows that simple is best.
The charming friend wants to please and treat.
The social anchor shows the way of the people.
The time traveller knows timing is everything.
Simplyifying - The KINDER TEACHER
The kindergarten teacher knows that simple instructions and pictures are needed for young learners. They make it as easy as possible. They know the first thing you see will influence you, and that you’re more likely to choose the easy option. They’ll model behaviours and provide clear signals about what to do. You’ll be deterred by seemingly small barriers. They also know that to learn and grow, small challenges (a tiny bit of friction) works well and that you will want to make some decisions yourself, and then you’ll be more committed. Another thing that they know, is that showing you an outcome - what’s going to happen, makes it a whole lot easier to take the first step.
Let’s visualise a children’s TV show featuring a beloved character, like Barney. Role-modeling, simplicity, visuals - all part of the formula to help us take the first step and make the journey easy.
ATTRACTING - THE CHARMING FRIEND
The charming friend appeals to our desire for pleasure. The charming friend understands that how things are presented really matters. They know that we like novelty. They know that we suffer from FOMO: if something is in short supply, we want it even more. They know we really don’t like losses, and that we’ll go to great lengths to avoid discomfort. Knowing as well that vision is the dominant sense, they go to extra effort to make the object of desire beautiful. They take care to provide visual cues about what to expect, knowing this is more influential than the actual experience. The more we like our friend, the more we say yes to them.
Just think of Nigella Lawson. Cooking home-style food never felt so seductive, so appealing. Or the Cat in the Hat. Who could refuse the Cat’s invitation to turn a boring day at home into an exciting and action packed one?
NORMALISING - THE SOCIAL ANCHOR
The social anchor knows that the way to bring you on board is create something bigger than any one person. They know that humans are very social, and are unlikely to buck the trend, or go against what’s socially acceptable. Our decisions are often affected by what others do or say. We also seek to be consistent with our public promises. The social anchor highlights what other people are doing and calls you to play along, to support and reciprocate. They might ask for a small commitment first, and then increase the ask later.
An obvious example is Oprah Winfrey. She unites people, showcasing what others are doing, what is the “right” way to address an issue or what is the best thing for humanity.
TIME-Neutralising: THE TIME TRAVELER
The time traveler knows that timing is everything. Arrive at the right time of day and the right year, and history can pivot. Arrive at the wrong moment and the time continuum is horribly corrupted. Time travel gives us a glimpse of what’s ahead, transporting us to the future (anticipating) and triggering our reward center to crave that future. The time traveler translates the future consequences of the actions we take now. They know that we place different values on the past, present and future, and that the ending of an experience is what counts, it’s what we will remember. With the knowledge of time, the time-traveler can help us make the best decision today, taking into account when we are most receptive to information and decision making.
Picture Marvel Comics’ Doctor Strange. A Master of the Mystic Arts, Strange travels through time and experiences multiple dimensions. But it’s not the phenomena of the multiverse that is the focus, it is the ability to see where the fork in the road is, to see the nuance of moments and to intervene and influence change.
How the Muses help us
Behavioural economics is a fascinating yet complex field. Frankly, delving into the vast number of biases can quickly become information overload. Paradoxically, arming ourselves with shortcut approaches for navigating mental shortcuts is the order of the day. It saves us mind work, the very thing we are working with in behavioural economics! Bringing iconic, visual images to our consciousness helps us to efficiently navigate the biases. We ask ourselves simple questions like:
Is this muse helping or hindering people from achieving their goals in this situation?
If this muse is in the room, how would they persuade you to take action?
What are all the things this muse would do in this situation to move forward / make progress / enable decision making?
FOR MORE
Well, that’s our angle on behavioural insights and nudging. To go way deeper, check out:
Thinking, Fast and Slow – Daniel Kahneman
Nudge – Richard Thaler and Cass Sunstein
Misbehaving – Richard Thaler
Switch – Chip and Dan Heath
The Happiness Hypothesis – Jonathan Haidt
To stay tuned for more tools on how to activate the muses in designing propositions, experiences and communications, click here.