According to the principles of behavioral science, people dont act rationally.
Such interventions are typically callednudges.
Nudges usually offer positive reinforcement or indirect suggestions that aim to influence decision making and behavior in people.
Some example nudges in response to the novel coronavirus includesinging happy birthdaywhile washing your hands or using funnyalternative handshakes.
This is because, in theory, behavioral science can achieve desirable behaviors without significantly impacting other day-to-day activities.
However, the question is whether in practice behavioral science to help mitigate disaster.
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Nudge argued that behavioral economics research could be used to transform public policy.
Nudges would be cheap, effective, and minimally disruptive.
But its also unfair to say its not sometimes effective.
For instance, in 2015 UK workplace pensions changed from beingopt-in to opt-out.
This nudged over 9 million UK employees to begin saving for their retirement, according to a2017 report.
Using some behavioral science to help tackle the coronavirus pandemic may make sense, as Thaler hasrecently argued.
But what hasmany experts worriedis the governments reliance on the idea of behavioral fatigue.
Foot taps, instead of hand shakes, are another example of a nudge.
Linda Bestwick/ Shutterstock
No clear definitionof behavioral fatigue exists.
For example, if people are placed in quarantine, they may initially be very compliant.
But after some time, this compliance will wither away.
And it may possibly happen as theUK government claims at precisely the moment its most needed.
They ask for the government to release its evidence supporting behavioral fatigue.
Until such evidence materializes, thedisparity in the UKs responsemay continue to be met with criticism.
Many behavioral science strategies, such as nudging, are classified as soft paternalist interventions.
Onefamous exampleis automatically registering people as organ donors, unless they choose otherwise.
This small change can significantly increase the number of organ donors, while maintaining freedom of choice.
By using behavioral science, the UK government chose a soft paternalism approach.
The government has nowimposed stricter rulesto control the spread of the virus.
Whether changing to a hard paternalist approach will work or if it was too late yet remains uncertain.
This article is republished fromThe ConversationbyStuart Mills, PhD Researcher,Manchester Metropolitan Universityunder a Creative Commons license.
