#1 Nudging – a friendly push in the right direction with Christina Gravert

What Monkeys Do

People make most of their decisions automatically. We make them fast and without being aware of them. About 80% of them actually. In this episode, you will learn how to use nudging to help you make those decisions better.

As humans, we don’t always make the best automatic decisions. In fact, we often make a decision that our better self doesn’t like. We don't get up early in the morning to exercise; we eat the cookies instead of the apples; we use email instead of Teams. You get the picture.

Cristina Gravert is a professor and expert in nudging. In this episode, she will give us tools, tricks and insights on how to use nudging in our personal and professional life. And of course, she will provide us with lots of concrete examples.
CHRISTINA WILL TALK ABOUT:

• What nudging is and why it is cool to be a behavioural economist
• How you can design situations to make sure the easy decision also is the right one
• Why some nudges don’t have a lasting effect, and how you can make them do
• How nudging can help us get up earlier to do our morning routine

ARE YOU BUSY? HERE ARE THE KEY POINTS

We have collected three key takeaways from the podcast. But that’s not all. There are more goodies in the episode itself, so hopefully, you will go listen to it.

#1: Make it easier to make the right decisions

Designing our environment - or plainly just making it easier to make the right decisions or harder to continue to do what we want to change - is such an obvious help. And it works. The many examples Christina provides in the episode highlight that. If you want to eat healthier, make unhealthy food less accessible. You can remove it from your sight or place it on the top shelf, so it is more difficult for you to reach. And yes, it has been researched - it really does work.

#2: Timing is everything

Another essential factor is timing. You need to be very clear about when it is that you make those wrong decisions and target that with a nudge. If your need for sugar primarily appears in the afternoon at the office, then it is no use hiding the cookies in your kitchen at home. Reminders and nudges need to come at the right time for it to have any effect.

#3: Reduce choice – less is more when making the right decisions

Reducing the amount of choice can make us do the right thing. We spend mental energy every time we make a decision. If we are not careful, we will let our automatic selves make the wrong decision. That is why fewer choices are good for us. If I get up early in the morning, and I decided the day before what my exercises should be, that will increase the likelihood that it will happen. I don’t need to think about it in the morning when I am more inclined to go back to bed or make the exercises faster.