Nudge is an idea in behavioral science, behavioral economics, and political philosophy which proposes positive augmentation and indirect suggestions as ways to shift the behavior as well as decision making of people. In 2008, the nudge concept was popularized by two American scholars Richard H Thaler and Cass R Sunstein in the book, ‘Nudge: Improving Decisions About Health, Wealth, and Happiness’. Thaler and Sunstein favored the use of Nudge for the betterment of human society and the world we live in. They also acknowledged that the theory unavoidably demands a certain degree of paternalism, which can be specifically classified as Libertarian Paternalism. This flexible theory is a modern concept for understanding people’s thinking, decision making, and behavior. It can be also used in the identification and modifications in existing unhelpful influences on people in order to improve and manage all sorts of changes for sustainability.

The notion of ‘Choice architect’ is strongly connected to the philosophy of Nudge theory and this must be acted upon with great responsibility, honesty, and wholeness. The lion’s share of works devoted to this approach falls under the umbrella of “libertarian paternalism”, also known as “nudging”. Few pieces of research clarified that many people strain while making changes when it comes to decisions. They prefer to stick with what they have, what they know, or what seems familiar to them. The name given for this is status quo bias which powers us with an advantage in an effort to promote more sustainable decisions and behaviors at the local level, more clearly when we speak about thinking globally and acting locally.

The main goal of nudging is to make the wrong decisions harder and providing an easy choice towards the right decisions. Although while establishing a desirable behavior, nudging is distinguished from the laws and rules as it involves slightly changing the choice architecture. As we know, humans invest less time and effort in certain kinds of decisions making, like activities pertaining to the daily routine, which makes the action less deliberate and conscious. Nudging enables an individual to have freedom of choice, with no pressure, giving a sense of empowerment. This can help them to be driven towards more sustainable results.

The majority of the people support the sustainability agenda, but still today human behavior continues to play a vital role in driving the long-term global trends comprising the sustainability challenge. An approach, which acts in the gap between action and intention is cost and time-efficient, and provides non-invasive guidance to decisions is Nudge. This discussion analyses the potential of a nudge to guide human behavior towards sustainability. With the help of the Framework for Strategic Sustainable Development, this discussion would try to find out how nudging can effectively generate incremental changes towards sustainable behavior. The primary scheme of nudging was to manage and direct behavior by making changes in the physical environment with a thought that these changes will be efficient tools when improving individuals’ behavior towards sustainability. For example, in grocery stores, healthy foods are placed at eye level in order to increase their consumption. Also, hotels in Norway have used the Nudge of reducing the plate size to reduce the food wastage. In 1982, A study by McNeil, Pauker, Sox, and Tversky concluded that framing statistical information had a great effect on people’s decision making. Different kinds of nudges can be used for the framing of information and social norms. One type of nudge is the framing of information. In other words, it means that the same statistical information was interpreted in a different manner depending on how it was framed.  However, nudging is not just restricted to the improvement towards sustainable behavior. Nudging is trolling at a wider platform, not only to make a profit in companies but also leading to an increase in costumers’ consumption, resulting in a non- sustainable behavior. A Scandinavian Airlines company provides a bonus system that makes it beneficial to fly more. Additionally, clothing stores are also using nudging to increase consumption by placing their cheap products by the pay desk.

Nudging sometimes may result in a non-sustainable behavior, but there are many examples highlighting the usage of nudging as a goal-oriented tool when creating more sustainable societies. In 1999, Germany carried out a natural experiment. In it three options were given and out of them one was presented as a default option and the costumers were informed to contact if they wished to change the product. Undoubtedly, almost 95 % of the costumers still used the default option even after two months. Here, the default option turned out to be an efficient tool when influencing the costumer’s choice. The default option being used as a nudge gave the customer two options, either actively choosing another option than the default one, or passively keep the default option. Often people choose the second case alternative of action which is the passive default choice. The efficiency of default options can be explained by humans’ desire to stay in the same state. This also describes that the Status quo bias influence on one’s judgments by emphasizing the possible risks of changing state, and the lesser risk of not changing. Thus, the potential loss seems larger than the potential gains. Although the default option has shown great efficiency, it is not implemented without challenges.

So people can be made to choose cleaner fuel, efficient energy management, and others as part of sustainability drive if these are presented as default options in their matrix of choice. Sustainability is large, indefinite, and challenging to understand and measure but the nudges can be understood and implemented easily. They can break down the large, abstract, and multiplex concept of non-sustainable into smaller, easier, tangle measurable actions and can also foster cross-sectoral collaboration to promote sustainability. Researchers have stated that the nudging approach has potential in driving behavior towards sustainability on a larger, systemic scale. For this to happen, the nudges should be outlined and strategically coordinated to hold a shared vision of sustainability that focusses on both the social as well as ecological systems of the earth. Nudging is not the only solution to society’s problems. But it can be used in concert with other educational as well as legislative approaches. Spotting the outcomes of promoting sustainable behaviors, undoubtedly nudges are well worth the effort.

The author is a student member of the Amity Centre of Happiness.