Nudge in the news: Ethics, effects, and support of nudges

• Published date: 01 September 2023
• Author: Lars Tummers
• Date: 01 September 2023
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/puar.13584

RESEARCH ARTICLE

Nudge in the news: Ethics, effects, and support of nudges

Lars Tummers

School of Governance, Utrecht University,

Utrecht, The Netherlands

Correspondence

Lars Tummers, Utrecht University,

Bijlhouwerstraat 6, 3511 ZC Utrecht, The

Netherlands.

Email: l.g.tummers@uu.nl

Abstract

Governments use nudges to stimulate citizens to exercise, save money and eat

healthily. However, nudging is controversial. How the media frames nudge impacts

decisions on whether to use this policy instrument. We, therefore, analyzed

443 newspaper articles about nudging. Overall, the media was positive about

nudges. Nudging was viewed as an effective and efficient way to change behavior

and received considerable support across the political spectrum. The media also

noted that nudges were easy to implement. The controversy about nudges con-

cerns themes like paternalism, fear of manipulation, small effect sizes, and unin-

tended consequences. Academic proponents of nudging were actively involved in

media debates, while critical voices were less often heard. There were some reports

criticizing how the government used nudges. However, these were exceptions; the

media often highlighted the benefits of nudging. Concluding, we show how nudg-

ing by governments was discussed in a critical institution: the news media.

Evidence for practice

•Nudges—such as making organ donation the default—to change the behavior

of citizens can be controversial.

•How the media frames nudges can impact decisions by politicians and policy

makers on whether to use nudges.

•In the news media, the controversy about nudges concerns themes like paternalism,

fear of manipulation, small effect sizes, and unintended consequences of nudges.

•The benefits of nudges, according to the media, include that nudges are cheap,

supported by politicians, and easy to implement.

•Governments can use the framework on the ethics, effects, and support of

nudges to analyze whether to use nudges.

Nudging is a way to change behavior without prohibiting

options or significantly changing economic incentives

(Thaler & Sunstein, 2008). An example of how nudges can

steer behavior comes from criminal justice policy: Fish-

bane et al. (2020) found that nudges—in their case, simpli-

fying forms and providing reminders via text messages—

increased people’s likelihood of showing up for their court

dates. Benartzi et al. (2017) conclude that nudges are more

cost-effective than traditional policy instruments like

incentives. As well as academic enthusiasm, there is inter-

est in nudges from governments (Bhanot & Linos, 2020).

Over 200 institutions worldwide apply behavioral insights

to public policy (OECD, 2022), including the United

Nations and the World Bank (Sanders et al., 2018).

However, some scholars are critical of nudges (Hansen &

Jespersen, 2013; Selinger & Whyte, 2011).Onecritiqueis

that nudges reduce autonomy (Vugts et al., 2020). Others

show that the effects of nudges in the real world are smaller

than is claimed in the scholarly literature (DellaVigna &

Linos, 2022). Furthermore, nudges can be manipulative.

Goodwin (2012) reasons that a more fruitful government

strategy would be to use deliberative models that encour-

age people to think deeply. Concluding, there is an exten-

sive debate on whether and when governments should use

nudging (Battaglio et al., 2019;Kasdan,2019;Weimer,2020).

There is a paucity of media analyses showing how

nudges are framed in the news media. A media analysis

is essential for two reasons. The media reports on

Received: 12 January 2022Revised: 7 November 2022Accepted: 18 November 2022

DOI: 10.1111/puar.13584

This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribu tion and reproduction in any medium, provided the

original work is properly cited.

© 2022 The Author. Public Administration Review published by Wiley Periodicals LLC on behalf of American Society for Public Administration.

Public Admin Rev. 2023;83:1015–1036. wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/puar 1015

governmental actions, which impacts governments’

decisions (Besley & Burgess, 2002;SnyderJr.&

Strömberg, 2010). Hence, how the media frames

nudges can impact decisions by politicians on whether

and how to use them. In addition, scholars can use a

media analysis to make inductive studies of themes

about nudging. An inductive approach allows scholars

to identify themes that may have been overlooked in

scholarly debates on nudging.

We have therefore conducted a media analysis of the

nudge debate in American and British newspaper articles

from 2008 to 2020. We chose these two countries as they

are frontrunners in using nudges. The book Nudge by the

Americans Thaler and Sunstein (2008) started the nudge

movement. One of the first Behavioral Insights Teams

established was in the United Kingdom (Sanders

et al., 2018). The media analysis included 443 articles,

including pieces published in The New York Times, The

Washington Post, The Sunday Times,The Guardian, and The

Financial Times.

The research goal was to analyze the frequency and

the assessment of nudging themes in the news. Studying

this enables us to analyze how nudges are framed in a

key institution: the news media. In addition, it helps

scholars understand whether academic critiques are

reflected in the media and whether the media holds poli-

ticians to account for using nudges. The research goal

was composed of three elements. First, we identified

which themes about nudging had been mentioned in the

news. This is relevant as future scholars can use the

themes identified to analyze topics relevant to the nudge

debate, ranging from whether nudges are effective in the

long run to whether they are easy to implement. Second,

we analyzed how often these themes were mentioned.

Was the media reporting focused mainly on the ethical

aspects of nudging, or the effectiveness of nudging, or

did journalists write primarily about the support nudges

were getting from the public? The third element con-

cerned assesses nudging: was the media positive about

nudging, and if so, about which themes? For instance, we

will analyze whether the media is positive or negative

about the effectiveness of nudges. Knowing this is valu-

able as the media can influence political decisions about

when and where to use nudges. In addition, this study

adds insights into the connection between academics,

politicians, and the media. We will study whether the

media holds politicians to account for using nudges. We

will also study whether academic proponents or critics

dominate the media debate.

THEORY

A background on nudge

Nudging has its roots in behavioral economics, a research

field combining insights from economics and psychology

(Thaler, 2016). Building upon these studies, scholars

emphasize the combination between public administration

and psychology, known as behavioral public administra-

tion (Grimmelikhuijsen et al., 2017; Schwarz et al., 2022). In

their influential book Nudge (2008), Thaler and Sunstein

define a nudge as “any aspect of the choice architecture

that alters people’s behavior in a predictable way without

forbidding any options or significantly changing their eco-

nomic incentives”(p. 6). Choice architecture is the environ-

ment within which people make decisions, for instance, a

restaurant, a shop, or a website. An example of a nudge is

making hand sanitizer dispensers availableinpublic spaces

(Redelmeier & Thaler, 2021). Placing hand sanitizers can

help people wash their hands more frequently. It does not

force you to wash your hands and does not change eco-

nomic incentives. Another nudge illustration is making

vegetarian dishes the default option during conferences.

Hansen et al. (2021) showed that this boosts the percent-

age of people who opt for the vegetarian meal: from only

6 percent when vegetarian was not the default to 87 per-

cent when it was presented as the standard option.

Nudging provides opportunities for governments.

For instance, nudges are often cost-effective (Bellé &

Cantarelli, 2021; Benartzi et al., 2017), making them an

attractive option for governments that aim to reduce

spending. Furthermore, nudges provide more autonomy

to citizens than traditional policy instruments like bans

and incentives (Loewenstein et al., 2012;Tummers,

2019). Light touch instruments appeal to political parties

that are hostile to government intervention. However,

nudging has pitfalls, including that nudges can be

manipulative (Wilkinson, 2013) and have unintended

consequences (Hansen & Jespersen, 2013).

We group the opportunities and pitfalls into three cat-

egories: ethics of nudges, effects of nudges, and support

for nudges. The categorization is inspired by the scholar-

ship of Moseley (2020). In an overview article, she summa-

rizes the debates on nudging. We used the work of

Moseley as it offers a broad overview of the nudge

debate. Her broad categorization contrasts with specific

analyses of nudge debates, such as whether nudges

impact autonomy (Vugts et al., 2020) or the long-term

effects of nudging (Cronqvist et al., 2018). Using the

framework of Moseley is beneficial as it helps to get a

comprehensive analysis of the nudge debate in the

media. A downside is that it makes it more difficult to

analyze one particular topic in depth. Moseley’s analysis

aligns with the categories and themes in the data. How-

ever, we had to structure it slightly differently—especially

regarding the attitudes and limits of nudging—to avoid

overlap between categories and themes.

We identified fifteen themes within the ethics, effects,

and support categories. This theory section will discuss

how the categories and themes relate to academic dis-

cussions. In the Methods section, we will discuss how we

have identified the categories and themes, while the

Results section shows their presence in the news media.

1016 NUDGE IN THE NEWS