Vol.1: To Support the Realization of the Optimal Choice
Often you receive mailings from your local government. Do you immediately open them and check the contents? Some of you may have lost the opportunity to receive government services because you procrastinated opening the mail.
Previous policy communications assumed that people would open the mail as soon as they received it, understand the contents, and complete the procedures by the deadline. They also assumed that those who truly needed government services would visit the local government website and obtain information on their own.
However, as behavioral economics, psychology, and other behavioral science research have revealed, in reality, humans cannot always carry out optimal choices by carefully and calmly acquiring and considering large amounts of information.
This is why "the last mile problem" occurs, in which policies and government services fail to reach those who would need them one step further. In other words, if we improve policy communications based on the characteristics of such real-life humans, we can potentially solve this problem.
In response to such the expectations, “Nudge,” a communication technique based on findings from behavioral science research, is beginning to be used in policy communications. The nudge can be defined as messages, designs, schemes, and systems that encourage people to make the optimal choices for themselves and society by considering and utilizing their preferences and decision-making characteristics without using mandates or large financial rewards.
Also in Japan, Totsuka Ward in Yokohama City uses the nudge to promote using account transfers to pay property tax. Tsukuba City in Ibaraki Prefecture uses it to create a system to help those who need evacuation assistance during a natural disaster. It has been used to promote social distancing behaviors under the pandemic of COVID-19.
The rapid spread of the nudge has raised concerns about its cheap and unconscionable use. This series of columns will present examples of nudges and their strengths and weaknesses, followed by the discussion of ethical concerns, their relationship to other policy methods, and the construction of networks to share accurate knowledge.
*This column is an English translation of a column I wrote for the Nihon Keizai Shimbun (a Newspaper) in Japanese. I have confirmed permission from the Nihon Keizai Shimbun to publicize this translated version.
Previous policy communications assumed that people would open the mail as soon as they received it, understand the contents, and complete the procedures by the deadline. They also assumed that those who truly needed government services would visit the local government website and obtain information on their own.
However, as behavioral economics, psychology, and other behavioral science research have revealed, in reality, humans cannot always carry out optimal choices by carefully and calmly acquiring and considering large amounts of information.
This is why "the last mile problem" occurs, in which policies and government services fail to reach those who would need them one step further. In other words, if we improve policy communications based on the characteristics of such real-life humans, we can potentially solve this problem.
In response to such the expectations, “Nudge,” a communication technique based on findings from behavioral science research, is beginning to be used in policy communications. The nudge can be defined as messages, designs, schemes, and systems that encourage people to make the optimal choices for themselves and society by considering and utilizing their preferences and decision-making characteristics without using mandates or large financial rewards.
Also in Japan, Totsuka Ward in Yokohama City uses the nudge to promote using account transfers to pay property tax. Tsukuba City in Ibaraki Prefecture uses it to create a system to help those who need evacuation assistance during a natural disaster. It has been used to promote social distancing behaviors under the pandemic of COVID-19.
The rapid spread of the nudge has raised concerns about its cheap and unconscionable use. This series of columns will present examples of nudges and their strengths and weaknesses, followed by the discussion of ethical concerns, their relationship to other policy methods, and the construction of networks to share accurate knowledge.
*This column is an English translation of a column I wrote for the Nihon Keizai Shimbun (a Newspaper) in Japanese. I have confirmed permission from the Nihon Keizai Shimbun to publicize this translated version.