This is a welcome revision to a hugely influential book. If by some chance you’ve escaped its influence, this is one of the works that brought many (and the concept of) standard biases to the popular consciousness, and more importantly, explained some practical applications of that knowledge. These applications have become the defaults (see what I did there?) for many companies and governments.
More than other pop-economics books, Thaler and Sunstein don’t just document curious features of human behavior; they demonstrate how to control them and advocate for doing so. It is easy to get carried away with this sort of thing (another bias I’m sure). The nudge can be powerful, but it is no panacea. The authors are completely aware of this, and while they indulge in some deck-chair work in the chapter on climate change, they also point out that nudges can’t fix everything. This being an update to the original text, they take the opportunity to respond to their critics in the last chapter, which is a useful exercise for clarifying their position and the policies they advocate.
I was disappointed by the conspicuous absence of advertising from the discussion. There are a few mentions sprinkled throughout the text, but manipulating human decisions is a craft long practiced and researched by marketing firms. Granted, their practices do not meet the formal definition of Nudging as it is not done for the benefit of the target. Still, there is much to be learned from that field, and the contrast with the author’s preferred nudging could be illuminating. This may be a mistaken assumption on my part, but even if I am correct, it is a small critique.
Nudge is a book of pop-economics, perhaps a little shallow in places but well-focused: it consistently leaves rabbit-holes unexplored and sticks to the script. It is founded on solid principles, understood through well-documented experiments, and translated into reliable practices. Its vocabulary is rich with words that should be better-known, like “choice architect”, and others that are drowning in academic specificity “libertarian paternalism”. Until the science advances, Nudge remains an essential part of understanding the human condition and the modern world.