Strategic Recommendations for the Design of Nudges towards a Sustainable Society.
Year: 2015
Type: dissertation
Abstract: Even though most people support the sustainability agenda, human behavior continues to play a major role in driving the long-term global trends comprising today's Sustainability Challenge. Raising awareness and public intention to act sustainably is not translating into meaningful change in sustainable behavior and legislation is time and cost intensive to implement. Another approach, that acts in the gap between intention and action, is cost and time efficient, and provides non-invasive guidance to decisions is nudge. This research analyzes guides for designing nudges and the current practices of nudge designers to discover its potential to guide human behavior towards sustainability. Using the Framework for Strategic Sustainable Development the researchers conclude that nudging can effectively create incremental changes towards sustainable behavior. The researchers see strong potential for nudging to have a greater impact within the Sustainability Challenge if scaled up and out. To do this, a strategic approach is required which considers the Earth’s complexity and preserves freedom. Thus, the researchers recommend integrating a systems thinking approach, ensuring nudges are transparent to those being nudged, strategically coordinate nudges using backcasting from vision of success and a definition of sustainability based on Sustainability Principles.
Authors: Nell Goepel, Frida Svanhall, Maira Rahme
Language: English
Subfield: General Decision Sciences
Field: Decision Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W1129833881