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Behavioral Insights from Across the Pond: How Nudging Tools from the U.K View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE provided by Boston University Institutional Repository (OpenBU) Boston University OpenBU http://open.bu.edu Theses & Dissertations Boston University Theses & Dissertations 2015 Behavioral insights from across the pond: how nudging tools from the U.K. won't help reduce obesity In the U.S. https://hdl.handle.net/2144/15717 Boston University BOSTON UNIVERSITY GRADUATE SCHOOL OF ARTS AND SCIENCES THESIS BEHAVIORAL INSIGHTS FROM ACROSS THE POND: HOW NUDGING TOOLS FROM THE U.K. WON’T HELP REDUCE OBESITY IN THE U.S. by ALISON M. DORSI B.A., Boston University, 2015 M.A., Boston University, 2015 Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts 2015 © Copyright by ALISON M. DORSI 2015 Approved By First Reader ______________________________________________ Graham Wilson, Ph.D. Professor of Political Science Second Reader ______________________________________________ Douglas Kriner, Ph.D. Associate Professor of Political Science To my Mother and Father iv BEHAVIORAL INSIGHTS FROM ACROSS THE POND: HOW NUDGING TOOLS FROM THE U.K. WON’T HELP REDUCE OBESITY IN THE U.S. ALISON M. DORSI ABSTRACT Obesity has become a major issue in advanced societies having serious impacts on various social as well as economic levels. In addition to the personal costs of obesity leading to serious and chronic diseases, obesity projects additional burdens upon society including lack of productivity, often resulting in increased dependence on governmental benefits, as well as increasing health care costs, most of which are paid for by taxes. This phenomenon has become especially prevalent in the United States and the United Kingdom, with both countries attempting to reduce obesity levels with programs that utilize varying levels of paternalism. As the costs to these societies have become unsustainable, both have begun to experiment with behavioral insights to address the faults in their current programs. The resulting policy tool, known as a nudge, focuses on consumers’ choice environments that contribute to poor health decisions and reframes the choice structures to intuitively encourage healthier choices. While both countries continue to study the use of nudges to reduce obesity, there are large differences in how each country has utilized nudges as a policy tool. For this large-scale problem and others like it, having the resources to develop policy solutions is not enough to resolve the problem: a country must be able to properly implement the solutions for them to be effective. This paper examines the development of nudging in each country and determines whether their differences in policy application reflect a broader problem of obesity-related policy intervention. v Table of Contents Introduction .............................................................................................................................. 1 I. The Obesity Epidemic ........................................................................................................ 3 Environmental Causes .................................................................................................................... 5 Social Effects ....................................................................................................................................... 8 Healthcare Costs ............................................................................................................................... 8 Economic Costs ................................................................................................................................ 10 II. Obesity Reduction Methods ......................................................................................... 14 Strong Coercion ............................................................................................................................... 16 Light Coercion .................................................................................................................................. 19 Informational Coercion ................................................................................................................ 23 What Should the Government Do Next? .................................................................................. 30 III. The Nudge .......................................................................................................................... 32 What is Nudging? ............................................................................................................................ 32 How Does Nudging Work? ........................................................................................................... 36 Does Nudging Work in Practice? ............................................................................................... 37 Arguments Against Nudging ....................................................................................................... 39 Arguments for Nudging ................................................................................................................ 41 IV. Nudging in Practice ....................................................................................................... 43 United Kingdom Nudging ............................................................................................................. 43 U.K. Nudging Examples ................................................................................................................. 48 Reducing Tax Fraud .................................................................................................................................... 48 Organ Donation ............................................................................................................................................. 50 Traffic Light System .................................................................................................................................... 51 United States Nudging ................................................................................................................... 53 U.S. Nudging Examples .................................................................................................................. 57 Student Debt Burden .................................................................................................................................. 57 Effects of Food Convenience in Cafeterias ........................................................................................ 59 Traffic Lights in Cafeterias ....................................................................................................................... 60 The Differences ............................................................................................................................... 61 V. The Differences in Practice .......................................................................................... 63 Is There a Difference? ................................................................................................................... 63 Behavioral Science in the U.K. Private Sector .................................................................................. 67 Behavioral Science in the U.S. Private Sector ................................................................................... 72 Private Sector Differences ........................................................................................................................ 74 Why Does This Difference Occur? ............................................................................................. 75 Confidence in Nudging ............................................................................................................................... 76 Institutional Advantages ........................................................................................................................... 79 Healthcare as a Valence Issue ................................................................................................................. 83 What are the Consequences for Reducing Obesity? ............................................................ 88 vi Conclusion ............................................................................................................................... 93 Bibliography ........................................................................................................................... 99 Vita .......................................................................................................................................... 110 vii Introduction The job of running the government of an industrialized country is no easy feat. While technological advances have helped these countries grow adequate amounts of food, make significant strides in scientific research, and provide strong education systems for its citizens to enjoy, the task of making sure all of these wonderful aspects of everyday life run successfully and equitably becomes very complicated. Every advance is accompanied by a set of new unanticipated problems, and often problems that the government must address these issues. For the vast majority of these problems there are numerous public opinions, and thus another problem ensues of which preferences will solve the problem and which will be implemented. The success of an industrialized country is not measured by the policy resources it has but rather by its ability to work
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