IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/ratsoc/v31y2019i2p204-232.html

Nudging and rationality: What is there to worry?

Author

Listed:
  • Bart Engelen

Abstract

The literature on nudging has rekindled normative and conceptual debates surrounding the extent to which and the direction in which people can legitimately influence each other’s actions. An oft-heard objection to nudging is that it exploits psychological mechanisms, manipulates people and thereby insufficiently respects their rational decision-making capacities. Bypassing and/or perverting people’s rational capacities, nudges are said to undermine agency. In this paper, I analyze and deflate these criticisms. After disentangling the different conceptions of rationality that pervade the arguments of both nudging enthusiasts and critics, I critically assess how and under which circumstances nudging can be said to undermine, pervert, bypass but also strengthen people’s rationality. Only in a limited set of cases, I argue, does it make sense to object to nudges for making people less rational than they are, can be or should be. Crucial in this respect will be the distinction between outcome-oriented and process-oriented conceptions of rationality.

Suggested Citation

  • Bart Engelen, 2019. "Nudging and rationality: What is there to worry?," Rationality and Society, , vol. 31(2), pages 204-232, May.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:ratsoc:v:31:y:2019:i:2:p:204-232
    DOI: 10.1177/1043463119846743
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/1043463119846743
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1177/1043463119846743?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Mark D. White, 2013. "The Manipulation of Choice," Palgrave Macmillan Books, Palgrave Macmillan, number 978-1-137-31357-7, July.
    2. Richard H. Thaler & Cass R. Sunstein, 2023. "Libertarian paternalism," Chapters, in: Cass R. Sunstein & Lucia A. Reisch (ed.), Research Handbook on Nudges and Society, chapter 1, pages 10-16, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    3. Lucia A. Reisch & Cass R. Sunstein, 2016. "Do Europeans like nudges?," Judgment and Decision Making, Society for Judgment and Decision Making, vol. 11(4), pages 310-325, July.
    4. Sunstein,Cass R., 2016. "The Ethics of Influence," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9781107140707, January.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Dominic Lemken & Ainslee Erhard & Simone Wahnschafft, 2024. "A choice architect’s guide to the (autonomous) galaxy: a systematic scoping review of nudge intrusiveness in food choices," Humanities and Social Sciences Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 11(1), pages 1-15, December.
    2. repec:osf:socarx:q79ku_v1 is not listed on IDEAS
    3. Grant J. Rozeboom, 2023. "How to Evaluate Managerial Nudges," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 182(4), pages 1073-1086, February.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Schubert, Christian, 2017. "Green nudges: Do they work? Are they ethical?," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 132(C), pages 329-342.
    2. Ramzi Mabsout, 2022. "John Stuart Mill, soft paternalist," Social Choice and Welfare, Springer;The Society for Social Choice and Welfare, vol. 58(1), pages 161-186, January.
    3. Danuta Miłaszewicz, 2022. "Survey Results on Using Nudges for Choice of Green-Energy Supplier," Energies, MDPI, vol. 15(7), pages 1-19, April.
    4. Eyal Pe’er & Yuval Feldman & Eyal Gamliel & Limor Sahar & Ariel Tikotsky & Nurit Hod & Hilla Schupak, 2019. "Do minorities like nudges? The role of group norms in attitudes towards behavioral policy," Judgment and Decision Making, Society for Judgment and Decision Making, vol. 14(1), pages 40-50, January.
    5. Roberto Fumagalli, 2016. "Decision sciences and the new case for paternalism: three welfare-related justificatory challenges," Social Choice and Welfare, Springer;The Society for Social Choice and Welfare, vol. 47(2), pages 459-480, August.
    6. Christian Schubert, 2015. "On the ethics of public nudging: Autonomy and Agency," MAGKS Papers on Economics 201533, Philipps-Universität Marburg, Faculty of Business Administration and Economics, Department of Economics (Volkswirtschaftliche Abteilung).
    7. Jan Schnellenbach, 2016. "A Constitutional Economics Perspective on Soft Paternalism," Kyklos, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 69(1), pages 135-156, February.
    8. Meder, Björn & Fleischhut, Nadine & Osman, Magda, 2018. "Beyond the confines of choice architecture: A critical analysis," Journal of Economic Psychology, Elsevier, vol. 68(C), pages 36-44.
    9. Martin Binder, 2019. "Soft paternalism and subjective well-being: how happiness research could help the paternalist improve individuals’ well-being," Journal of Evolutionary Economics, Springer, vol. 29(2), pages 539-561, April.
    10. Giorgos Meramveliotakis & Manolis Manioudis, 2024. "Default Nudge and Street Lightning Conservation: Towards a Policy Proposal for the Current Energy Crisis," Journal of the Knowledge Economy, Springer;Portland International Center for Management of Engineering and Technology (PICMET), vol. 15(2), pages 9228-9237, June.
    11. J. M. Bauer & L. A. Reisch, 2019. "Behavioural Insights and (Un)healthy Dietary Choices: a Review of Current Evidence," Journal of Consumer Policy, Springer, vol. 42(1), pages 3-45, March.
    12. Abigail N. Devereaux, 2019. "The nudge wars: A modern socialist calculation debate," The Review of Austrian Economics, Springer;Society for the Development of Austrian Economics, vol. 32(2), pages 139-158, June.
    13. Eduard Marinov, 2017. "The 2017 Nobel Prize in Economics," Economic Thought journal, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences - Economic Research Institute, issue 6, pages 117-159.
    14. Nobel Prize Committee, 2017. "Richard H. Thaler: Integrating Economics with Psychology," Nobel Prize in Economics documents 2017-1, Nobel Prize Committee.
    15. Kaiser, Micha & Bernauer, Manuela & Sunstein, Cass R. & Reisch, Lucia A., 2020. "The power of green defaults: the impact of regional variation of opt-out tariffs on green energy demand in Germany," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 174(C).
    16. Eyert, Florian & Irgmaier, Florian & Ulbricht, Lena, 2018. "Algorithmic social ordering: Towards a conceptual framework," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, pages 48-57.
    17. Mark Whitehead & Rhys Jones & Jessica Pykett, 2020. "Questioning post-political perspectives on the psychological state: Behavioural public policy in the Netherlands," Environment and Planning C, , vol. 38(2), pages 214-232, March.
    18. Linda Thunström, 2019. "Welfare effects of nudges: The emotional tax of calorie menu labeling," Judgment and Decision Making, Society for Judgment and Decision Making, vol. 14(1), pages 11-25, January.
    19. Elena Kantorowicz‐Reznichenko & Jaroslaw Kantorowicz, 2021. "To follow or not to follow the herd? Transparency and social norm nudges," Kyklos, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 74(3), pages 362-377, August.
    20. Jan Schnellenbach, 2019. "Evolving hierarchical preferences and behavioral economic policies," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 178(1), pages 31-52, January.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:sae:ratsoc:v:31:y:2019:i:2:p:204-232. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.