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Friday, March 29, 2024

Use of Nudge Principles to defeat lockdown in Covid-19 crisis

The Corona Virus started in Wuhan, China and presently spread across the globe. Till now, more than 2.5 lakh people were infected with coronavirus and caused more than 8,000 deaths in the world. Bharat has confirmed cases of 1100 and around 29 people died due to this pandemic. Most of the countries adopted similar steps such as shutting schools, universities, banning gatherings, locking down borders and quarantining travelers for 14 days who were coming to their country in different phases of this pandemic. Apart from this, behavioural science played an important role in the fight of the Coronavirus. 

Majority of the government across the world used nudge principles based on behavioural science to make their citizen individually responsible to contain the coronavirus by self-isolating, sitting at home, frequently washing their hands, use of sanitizers, Coughing using tissue or handkerchief, not touching your face, not shaking hands with others and social distancing. Let’s understand the ‘Nudge theory’.  

The nudge theory has been popularized in Richard Thaler and Cass Sunstein’s book Nudge: Improving Decisions about Health, Wealth and Happiness (2008) and was defined as “any aspect of the choice architecture that predictably alters people’s behaviour without forbidding any options or significantly changing their economic incentives”. It means nudges are “interventions” that tip citizens in a direction but also give them freedom of choice. For example: Arranging healthy food items at the eye level in the store nudged people to buy more healthy foods. 

The former economics professor and think-tank adviser Tony Yates stated that nudge theory does not only inform what the government is doing but also inform us what is not doing. He observed that “the government’s strategy has at its heart predictions about human behaviour”, which includes preventive strategy such as social distancing and also gives insight that extreme actions of the government such as lockdown for a long time can cause boredom, fatigue among the larger population, people find it a way to come out and reduce its effectiveness. There is enough evidence in the behavioural science which shows that people have a high commitment at an early stage, but their motivation and enthusiasm comes down at some point.

In this Context, when Bharat is locked down for 21 days and people may lose its motivation after some time, the government of Bharat again used the nudge principles in the form of starting Ramayana and Mahabharat on the television to keep the motivation among the citizen. It is the best example of nudge in the present time to keep the enthusiasm high among the people and to divert the attention of the people from the coronavirus. The stories of the Ramayana and Mahabharat gives the citizen hope and positivity in this depressing time and helping the government to implement lockdown in the country.

I interviewed a few people on the phone regarding their view on the government decision to air Ramayana and Mahabharat in this crisis. 

lockdown mai Mann nahi lag raha tha and bar bar bahar jane ka man kar raha tha. Ab bacho ke sath 9 baje Ramayana and 12 baje Mahabharat dekhte hai. And Shaam mai bhi yehi karte hai. Is tarah Ramayana and Mahabharat ki aachi baat Bacho ko batate hai and time accha nikal jata hai. Entertainment accha ho jata hai and positive knowledge bhi milta hai”: Mithilesh Kumar, resident of Patna, Bihar. (We were getting bored and losing hope in sitting in the home. Now, we wait and see Ramayana and Mahabharat at 9 am and 12 pm respectively and do the same in the evening. We share the good values and learnings of both epics to our children and have a good time watching with them. Both epics are a good source of entertainment and knowledge in this crisis.  

The Scholars such as Benartzi (2017) and Mollenkamp (2019) suggested that nudges have proven to be highly cost-effective compared to other public policy tools that are available to policymakers in numerous sectors, nudges per dollar expenditure has shown greater impact than other traditional approaches. These areas include education, taxes, and subsidies.

Benartzi (2017) conducted a study of the costs and efficacy of various policy interventions in four areas: flu vaccinations, college enrollment, increasing retirement savings and, energy conservation. The objective of the study was to assess whether nudges are an effective use of public resources. For all the four areas of study, it was found that nudges offered the most impact per dollar.

In Bharat also, Nudge has been a very effective instrument in policy implementation such as the use of nudge principles in ‘Swachh Bharat Abhiyan’ in changing the behaviour of the people regarding construction and usage of toilet. Another evidence of nudge effectiveness is the Success of Social distancing, increasing hygiene behaviour such as the washing of hand in the people in Bharat.

Worldwide, Governments have been striving towards steering the decision-making behaviour of their people in the direction of achieving the best policy objectives. Given the progress of behavioural science, policymakers are now equipped with ‘nudge’, which promises a high return on minimal investment.

Nudging principles have been very effective in preventing the people from Corona Virus not only in Bharat but across the world. In line with research that suggests ‘nudges’ are more effective as compared to traditional approaches to policy, the author concludes that policymakers should nudge more, and governments should spend more on nudging.

-by Dhananjay Kumar (Chevening Scholar (2019-20), MA Public Policy, King’s College London, United Kingdom)

References:

Agarwal, S., Rengarajan, S., Sing, T.F., and Yang, Y. (2017) Nudges from school children and electricity conservation: Evidence from the “Project Carbon Zero” campaign in Singapore Energy Economics, 61, pp. 29-41

Benartzi, S., Beshears, J., Milkman, K.L., Sunstein, C.R., and Thaler, R.H. (2017) ‘Governments are trying to nudge us into better behaviour?’, The Washington Post, 11 August 

Benartzi, S., Beshears, J., Milkman, K.L., Sunstein, C.R., Thaler, R.H., Shankar, M., Tucker-Ray, W., Congdon, W.J., and Galing S. (2017) ‘Should Governments Invest More in Nudging?’ Psychological Science, 28 (8), pp. 1041-1055, doi: 10.1519/JSC.0000000000000704

Bhargava, S., and Loewenstein, G. (2015) ‘Behavioral Economics and Public Policy 102: Beyond Nudging’ American Economic Review, 105 (5), pp. 396-401.

Clark, R.L., Hammond, R.G., Morrill, M.S., and Khalaf, C. M. (2017) Nudging retirement savings: A field experiment on supplemental plans, viewed 23 December 2019, <http://papers.nber.org/tmp/80103 w23679.pdf>

Duflo, E., Kremer, M., and Robinson, J. (2011) ‘Nudging farmers to use fertilizer: theory and experimental evidence from Kenya’ American Economic Review, 101 (6), pp. 2350-2390

Egan, M. (2017) A Macat Analysis of Richard H. Thaler and Cass R. Sunstein’s Nudge: Improving Decisions About Health, Wealth, and Happiness. London: MACAT International Limited

Guiteras, P., Levine,D.I.,  Luby, S.P., Polley, T.H.,   Khatun-e-Jannat, K.M and  Unicomb, L. (2016) ‘Disgust, Shame, and Soapy Water: Tests of Novel Interventions to Promote Safe Water and Hygiene’ Journal of the Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, 3 (2), pp. 321–59, doi:10.1086/684161

Hansen, P.G., and Jespersen, A.M. (2013) ‘Nudge and the Manipulation of Choice: A Framework for the Responsible Use of the Nudge Approach to Behaviour Change in Public Policy’ European Journal of Risk Regulation, 4 (1), pp. 3-28

Hummel, D., and Maedche, A. (2019) ‘How effective is nudging? A Quantitative Review on the Effect, Sizes and Limits of Empirical Nudging Studies’ Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics, 80, pp. 47-58. 

Innocenti, A. (2017) ‘Virtual Reality Experiments in Economics’ Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics, 69, pp. 71-77 

Iyer, P. (2019) ‘How the Swachh Bharat Mission is nudging people to use toilets’, The Hindustan Times, 25 January 

John, P., and Stroker, G. (2017) From nudge to nudge plus: Behavioural public policy for a self-guiding society. IPPA 2017 Research Practice Symposium. 

Kahneman, D. (2003) ‘A perspective on judgment and choice: Mapping bounded rationality’ American Psychologist, 58(9), pp. 697–720

Kamal, K. (2005) Practical Guide to Triggering Community-Led Total Sanitation (CLTS), viewed 21 December 2019

Lehner, M., Mont, O., and Heiskanen, E. (2016) ‘Nudging – A Promising Tool for Sustainable Consumption Behavior? Journal of Cleaner Production, 134 A, pp. 166-177

McLaughlin, K. (2016) Empowerment: A Critique. New York: Routledge

Noggle, R. (2018) ‘The Ethics of Manipulation’ The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Summer 2018 Edition) Edward N. Zalta (ed.)

Nys, R.V.T., Engelen, B. (2016) ‘Judging Nudging: Answering the Manipulation Objection’ Political Studies, 65 (1), pp. 199-214  

Patil, S.R., Arnold, B.F., Salvatore, A.L., Briceno, B., Ganguly, S., and Colford, J.M. Jr. (2014) ‘The Effect of India’s Total Sanitation Campaign on Defecation Behaviors and Child Health in Rural Madhya Pradesh: A Cluster Randomized Controlled Trial’ PLoS Med, 11(8).

Quigley, M. (2013) ‘Nudging for Health: On Public Policy and Designing Choice Architecture’ Medical Law Review, 21 (4), pp. 588-621 

Reiss, J. (2013) Philosophy of Economics: A Contemporary Introduction. New York: Routledge.

Routray, P.Schmidt, W.P.Boisson, S.Clasen, T., and Jenkins, M.W. (2015) ‘Socio-Cultural and Behavioural Factors Constraining Latrine Adoption in Rural Coastal Odisha: An Exploratory Qualitative Study’ BMC Public Health 15 (880), doi: 10.1186/s12889-015-2206

Sarthak, G. (2019) ‘Policies Need a Cautious Nudge’ Economic and Political Weekly, 54 (39)

Searle, J. (2005) ‘What is an institution’ Journal of Institutional Economics, 1 (1), pp. 1-22

Selinger, E., and Whyte, K.P. (2012) ‘Nudging Cannot Solve Complex Policy Problems’ European Journal of Risk Regulation, 3 (1), pp. 26-31, doi: 10.1017/S1867299X0000177X

Simon, H.A. (1957) Models of Man, Social and Rational: Mathematical Essays on Rational Human Behavior in a Social Setting. New York: John Wiley and Sons

Subramaniam, J. (2014); Of toilets, sanitation and nudge’, Livemint, 13 January

Sudarshan, A. (2017) ‘Nudges in the marketplace: The response of household electricity consumption to information and monetary incentives’ Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization, 134, pp. 320-335

Sunstein, C.R. (2014) What Nudge? The Politics of Libertarian Paternalism. Yale University Press

Thompson, T., and Khan, S. (2003) ‘Situation Analysis and Epidemiology of Infectious Disease Transmission: A South – East’ Asian regional perspective’ International Journal of Environmental Health Research, 13 (1), pp. 29-36

Thaler, R., and Sunstein, C.R. (2008) Nudge – Improving Decisions about Health, Wealth and Happiness. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press. 

(Featured image source)


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