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Personalized nudging

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  13 April 2020

STUART MILLS Open the ORCID record for STUART MILLS [Opens in a new window]
STUART MILLS*
Affiliation:
Future Economies Research Centre, Manchester Metropolitan University, Manchester, UK
*
*Correspondence to: Stuart Mills, PhD Researcher in Behavioural Economics, Future Economies Research Centre, Manchester Metropolitan University, Manchester, UK. E-mail: s.mills@mmu.ac.uk
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Abstract

A criticism of behavioural nudges is that they lack precision, sometimes nudging people who – had their personal circumstances been known – would have benefitted from being nudged differently. This problem may be solved through a programme of personalized nudging. This paper proposes a two-component framework for personalization that suggests choice architects can personalize both the choices being nudged towards (choice personalization) and the method of nudging itself (delivery personalization). To do so, choice architects will require access to heterogeneous data. This paper argues that such data need not take the form of big data, but agrees with previous authors that the opportunities to personalize nudges increase as data become more accessible. Finally, this paper considers two challenges that a personalized nudging programme must consider, namely the risk personalization poses to the universality of laws, regulation and social experiences, and the data access challenges policy-makers may encounter.

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Type
New Voices
Information
Behavioural Public Policy , Volume 6 , Issue 1 , January 2022 , pp. 150 - 159
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2020. Published by Cambridge University Press

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