PSYC3370 · Psychology

Nudge Psychology

Morrissey College of Arts & Sciences

Small changes in our environments can have big impacts on our behavior. For example, in one hospital in London, simply changing the wording used to remind patients of upcoming appointments dropped the missed appointment rate so dramatically the hospital saved millions of dollars. In this course we will study the power of nudges, subtle but powerful changes in the environment that can counteract behavioral biases and encourage better decision-making. We will start with learning about dual-systems models of cognition and then explore how these systems interact to make us vulnerable to bias, heuristics, jumping to conclusions, and erroneous decision-making. Finally, we will investigate how nudges have been leveraged to positively influence behavior and improve social systems.