Nudge+: Reflective behavioural policies for sustainable behaviour change

Nudges have been increasingly deployed to promote sustainable dietary choices in the last decade. There is currently mixed evidence of their effectiveness and concerns around their scalability and ethics of delivery. These problems have led to a discussion on ways to look beyond nudging for climate sustainability. It has also been pointed out that these shortcomings relate to problems of “human agency" -- people's capabilities to form intentions and act freely on them -- to motivate meaningful, sustainable decisions. A growing proposition in behavioural science, therefore, is to empower people to engage in behaviour change and encourage them to think through their choices. 

In this talk, Sanchayan will outline a new behavioural toolkit, NUDGE+. Nudge+ is a modified behavioural public policy that encourages people to think alongside nudges – thereby building self-ownership in citizens to evaluate their true preferences for the nudge and its goals. Sanchayan discuss how this toolkit can be developed and applied for fostering sustainable food policies and other pro-social behaviours. The talk will review findings from a series of experiments that have systematically evaluated nudge+ with other contemporary toolkits, like conventional nudges, boosts and thinks, to promote the uptake of environmentally sustainable diets in the United Kingdom.

About Dr Banerjee

Dr. Sanchayan Banerjee is an Assistant Professor of Environmental and Behavioural Economics at the Institute for Environmental Studies in Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam. He is a visiting fellow of the London School of Economics and King’s College London, and a fellow of the UK Higher Education Academy. He has developed the psychological and economic theory of NUDGE+ with Professor Peter John. In his research, Sanchayan is interested in designing and experimentally testing citizen-oriented behavioural public policies for fostering pro-environmental and pro-social decisions. 

Twitter handle: @SanchayanBanerj