Nudging People In Britain

Prime Minister David Cameron has been an unsung innovator in making government more efficient and less intrusive.

Prime Minister David Cameron has embraced the idea of testing the power of behavioral change to devise effective policies, seeing it not just as a way to help people make better decisions, but also to help government do more for less.

In 2010, Mr. Cameron set up the Behavioral Insights Team — or nudge unit, as it’s often called. Three years later, the team has doubled in size and is about to announce a joint venture with an external partner to expand the program.

One example:

Mr. Gyani decided to apply these ideas to the job centers. He helped design an initial trial in which 2,000 people looking for jobs were randomly split into two groups: The first group continued to fill out many forms and wait for a visit with an adviser. Those in the second group filled out only two forms and saw a job adviser immediately. If those in the second group hadn’t found work within eight weeks, they were also offered the expressive-writing exercise and a test to identify their strengths. Throughout, advisers in the nudged group not only reminded people to go to a job interview or update their résumé, but also asked them how they planned to get to the interview and at what time of day they would write their résumé. They wrote down the plan in front of their adviser.

“The idea,” Mr. Gyani said, “was to create commitment.”

Preliminary results of the trial surprised even Mr. Gyani. Of the 1,000 unemployed workers who had been nudged, 60 percent were back in a job within 13 weeks, compared with 51 percent of those who weren’t nudged.

President Obama has set up a similar office here and hopefully the results will be equally dramatic.

By: Stuart Shapiro

Stuart is a professor and the Director of the Public Policy
program at the Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy at Rutgers
University. He teaches economics and cost-benefit analysis and studies
regulation in the United States at both the federal and state levels.
Prior to coming to Rutgers, Stuart worked for five years at the Office
of Management and Budget in Washington under Presidents Clinton and
George W. Bush.