All it takes a little NUDGE

The other day I was reading the Economic Survey (2018-19). It has one whole chapter dedicated to Nudge Theory of Behavioral Economics field. So I thought of writing about it. It will be a sort of NUDGE to get out of inertia which prevented me from writing new posts.

Nudge Theory got popularized after Richard Thaler was awarded Nobel Prize for it. He is the father of the NUDGE Theory. To many, it might seem like common sense to use these techniques. But you see, common sense is not common and Nobel is definitely not common stuff.

Nudge Theory has immense commercial potential. No doubt. For example, you will find chocolates near the cash counter of Groceries Malls (DMart/BigBazaar) because we are exhausted after shopping need some instant sources of energy. The NUDGE Theory can also be used effectively in personal life. We can not always find someone to Nudge us. We got to help ourselves, as Buddha said "Appo Dippo Bhava".

People of our age (15 to 59) spending on an average of 2 hours on YouTube every day. Rest of the time they are lost in Applications like FB, Instagram, WhatsApp, etc. Most of these are Youth Jio Subscribers. There is army of Applications that are there to kill your precious time. People frequently check their mobile phones after every notification. And then starts the infinite time spending into that Application.

What if we could stop ourselves from checking the phone so frequently? You should have great self-control for that. Or you should uninstall those Applications. But can we NUDGE ourselves to reduce the use of a phone? I have got a trick. You can keep your phone's password as "IsItImportant?" Or "WillThisHelpMeToAchieveMyGoal?" Or "MoreScreenTimeIsBadForTheEyes!" Etc. Believe me, by the time you type the last character of the password, i.e. "?" Or "!", you would have changed your mind. I used to keep these kinds of passwords on my previous phone. Now it's face recognition. So I had two options, disable the feature of face recognition or uninstall the Application.

You got to understand the problem first and then use the instruments available. That's why we should keep a check on Nobel Prizes, which are actually the solutions to prevailing Social Problems.

There is an increase in the number of obese people around the cities. This is a serious health issue, mainly because of a sedentary lifestyle. And in kids, it's genetic or due to unhealthy food habits. But can we tackle this issue by taking small steps (literally!)?

Here I would suggest that your chubby buddy should be encouraged to use the staircase instead of the elevator. But without hurting their sentiments.

How can we do this? Putting up the print outs like "Take the stairs can you can burn these many of calories" won't help much. The brain hates processing data. Instead, I would suggest using visual stuff, which would indicate the benefit of stairs. Again, it should be done in a subtle way. The purpose is not to embarrass someone but to promote healthy habits. That's what the real application of NUDGE Theory is.

We will discuss two case studies here. One is a personal experience and the other is a solution to make our country less obese.

SMART-phone - time killer of our generation!

Step up to longevity

In my opinion, we should read some of these theories related to Behavioral Economics. Not only because it has Applications in personal lives, but it also helps one to understand how we get affected by them. After all, learning is an eternal process.