How Independent Are We Really?

Recently upon reading the book Nudges by Richard Thaler and Cass Sunstein I began to really wonder how many of my decisions I have truly made. In the book, the idea is brought up that people who lay out decisions for people, called choice architects, play a large role in how successful the "correct" choice is in being picked. These choice architects shape the choices, they nudge people in the direction of the right choice. Some large examples in the book were things such as medicare plans or 401Ks. It is easy to see how our large choices in life are affected by these choice architects, but in everyday choices, it is harder to see how choice architects shape our decisions.

In many cases by looking at a simple decision such as what to have for breakfast, it doesn't seem like others are involved in the decision. However when you break it down and look closely you can see these nudges. Say you chose to eat yogurt for breakfast this morning, it may not seem like anyone influenced you to eat that over a donut however, the chain of nudges started long before you woke up that morning. You wake up and choose to eat yogurt, but that choice was nudged by the fact you had yogurt and not a donut at your house. You have yogurt at your house because when you were shopping at the grocery store you picked up a flyer that was conveniently located at the beginning of the first aisle. You peek through the add and see that yogurt is on sale so you pick up yogurt. You take it home and put it in your fridge and the next morning you see you have yogurt and you eat it. Each of these steps were nudges. The supermarket placed the sale flyer right as you walked in the door, you could have simply passed it by. That was a nudge, just as seeing yogurt is on sale is a nudge.

One of my favorite places to go is a coffee shop in town, as I was sitting doing homework today I noticed a large nudge that I had never noticed before. On the menu, there are about five panels, the way the drinks are set up it seems that the more expensive and "fancier" coffees are in larger text. Also, the new promotional drinks have pictures of the drinks next to them. Since I spend so much time and money at this coffee shop I have gotten into the habit of drinking the same few drinks, and you guessed it they are usually the more expensive ones. The coffee shop nudged me to start out with trying the more expensive "coffee" and now I am much more likely to splurge on these drinks I enjoy.
When you start to look for nudges, they are all around you!