From cutting food waste to stopping smoking, 'nudge theory' gains ground in the mainstream

Behavioural science can be used by governments to guide decision-making, build good habits and tackle societal ills, some of the world's leading experts have said at an event in Abu Dhabi.

At the inaugural Behavioural Exchange conference at NYU Abu Dhabi on Wednesday, Shamma Al Mazrui, Minister of Community Empowerment, called for strategies that strengthen people’s ability to adapt and lead.

“It’s about building people who can function and thrive and lead when none of these paths exist,” she said in her opening speech.

Speaking to The National, Cass Sunstein, Robert Walmsley Professor at Harvard Law School and co-author of the influential book Nudge, said governments and institutions can dramatically improve people’s health and well-being through simple design choices that guide but never force better decisions.

Nudge theory

The concept behind nudge theory is to preserve freedom of choice while gently steering people towards beneficial outcomes.

Examples include everything from placing fruit at eye level in supermarkets to challenging consumers about tobacco use and food waste. Messages in hotels that encourage people to reuse towels to help the environment are often cited as one of the most effective.

“The idea is that it’s possible to improve outcomes for people by nudging them without mandating anything,” he said. “If you get information about allergens in food, you’re being nudged to avoid those foods. If an airport offers clear directions to the gate or a prayer room, that’s a nudge. If your printer defaults to double-sided, you’re being nudged to use less paper.”

Nudges, he explained, are built into everyday environments. They do not take away a person's autonomy and freedom of choice. Shops, for example, can encourage healthier diets simply by putting nutritious items at eye-level.

“All over the world, nations are using behavioural science to try to improve outcomes,” he said. “In the UAE, there’s extraordinary work being done to help people live longer, eat better, and stay safe.”

Behavioural science in action

Rasha Attar, director of the Behavioural Science Group, pointed to successes that demonstrated measurable change in the UAE.

“Some of our early wins that showed tangible and competent changes were in our collaboration with Nema, the national food loss initiative,” she said. “We were able to decrease food loss across multiple different touch points and to show different stakeholders and new partners that, with simple low-cost nudges, we are able to change behaviours sustainably.”

Ms Attar said the team is targeting a range of habits. “Whether it’s encouraging people to become more physically active, to be more aware of what kind of food they eat, to be healthier, these are all behaviours we love to see.”

On whether simple nudges could shape long-term behaviour, she said: “Absolutely, with the right choice, the right environment, but also the correct nudges that have been tailored to suit our particular audience? Absolutely.”

She described a study implemented during Ramadan in the Emirates that focused on cutting food waste as people broke their fast, noting that it was cut by 15 per cent per diner after “simple posters or cards with important messages about waste” were strategically located to raise awareness and trigger different behaviours.

Setting new trends

Professor David Halpern, president emeritus of the Behavioural Insights Team, said Abu Dhabi is becoming a global hub for this sort of research.

“The whole thing is bringing together leading thinkers, who try to understand human behaviour, with policymakers,” he said.

Prof Halpern, often regarded as one of the pioneers of the nudge movement, said that understanding and influencing human behaviour is essential to solving today’s most pressing public policy challenges, from obesity to savings habits to climate action.

But nudges are only the beginning, with Prof Halpern emphasising that long-term change depends on creating new habits.

“A lot of our behaviour is driven from an almost automatic level of habit. So one of the challenges is for us to become more aware of our habits and what drives them, and that can be empowering for families or communities or countries,” he said. “Ideally, what we’re often trying to do is turn it into a new habit which sometimes even becomes part of our identity.”

The conference is hosted by the Behavioural Insights Team and the Behavioural Science Group, in partnership with the Centre for Behavioural Institutional Design at NYU Abu Dhabi.

Areas of discussion focus on applied behavioural sciences and how these insights can be used to aid international development, global education and change societal norms. It concludes on Thursday.

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