Richard H. Thaler University of Chicago - Booth School of
Business; National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) Cass R.
Sunstein Harvard Law School John P. Balz University of Chicago -
Political Science Department April 2, 2010 Decision makers do
not make choices in a vacuum. They make them in an environment
where many features, noticed and unnoticed, can influence their
decisions. The person who creates that environment is, in our
terminology, a choice architect. In this paper we analyze some
of the tools that are available to choice architects. Our goal
is to show how choice architecture can be used to help nudge
people to make better choices (as judged by themselves) without
forcing certain outcomes upon anyone, a philosophy we call
libertarian paternalism. The tools we highlight are: defaults,
expecting error, understanding mappings, giving feedback,
structuring complex choices, and creating incentives. Number of
Pages in PDF File: 17 Keywords: Behavioral Economics, Public
Policy, Nudge, Psychologyworking