Nudge theory suggests consumer behaviour can be influenced by small suggestions and positive reinforcements. 助推理论认为，消费者的行为可以通过小建议和积极的强化措施来影响。

Proponents of nudge theory suggest that well-placed ‘nudges’ can reduce market failure, save the government money, encourage desirable actions and help increase the efficiency of resource use. Critics argue nudges can be misused and become a form of social engineering or way to encourage consumers to buy goods they don’t really need.

助推理论的支持者认为，合理的"助推"可以减少市场失灵，为政府节省资金，鼓励理想的行动，并帮助提高资源的使用效率。批评者认为 "助推"可能会被滥用，成为一种社会工程或鼓励消费者购买他们并不真正需要的商品的方式。

With Richard Thaler being awarded the Nobel Prize in economics for his work on behavioural economics, nudges are likely to become increasingly common in everyday life.

随着理查德-塞勒因其在行为经济学方面的工作而被授予诺贝尔经济学奖，"助推"可能会在日常生活中变得越来越普遍。

In the UK, the Behavioural Insights Unit was set up to use behavioural economics in order to improve choices. Their remit includes 在英国，成立了行为洞察小组，利用行为经济学来改善选择。他们的职责包括:

• making public services more cost-effective and easier for citizens to use; 使公共服务更具成本效益，使公民更容易使用
• improving outcomes by introducing a more realistic model of human behaviour to policy, and wherever possible, 通过在政策中引入更现实的人类行为模式，并尽可能地改善结果
• enabling people to make ‘better choices for themselves’. Behavioural Insights Unit 使人们能够为自己做出 "更好的选择"。行为洞察力部门

Examples of nudges 助推的例子

• Up-sell 向上销售 . If you go to a fast-food restaurant, servers are trained to ‘up-sell’ – this means they offer extra options to go with the meal. Often it is ‘drinks, extras and deserts’ which are the most profitable part of the meal. 如果你去快餐店，服务员都接受过 "向上销售 "的培训--这意味着他们提供额外的选择来搭配餐点。通常情况下，"饮料、额外的东西和甜点 "是膳食中最有利可图的部分。
• If you buy a coffee, and a barista offers a pastry as well – we are more likely to buy the pasty when it is offered as a suggestion. 如果你买了一杯咖啡，而咖啡师也提供了一个糕点--当糕点作为一种建议被提供时，我们更有可能购买它。
• Product placement 产品放置. To encourage healthy eating, healthy options could be made more easily available, e.g school lunches could be carefully monitored – reducing the number of unhealthy options. This is related to the concept of ‘choice architecture’ – the idea that if goods are presented in a different way, it can help ‘nudge’ people’s consumption to the desired option. 为了鼓励健康饮食，可以使健康的选择更容易获得，例如，学校午餐可以仔细监测 - 减少不健康的选择的数量。这与 "选择结构 "的概念有关--如果商品以不同的方式呈现，它可以帮助 "推动 "人们的消费，使其成为理想的选择。
• Default options 默认选项 . A powerful way to encourage take-up rates of ‘desirable options’ is to set the desired outcome as the default option. For example, at the moment, people have to ‘opt-in’ to be an organ donor. This leads to low rates of organ donation as people don’t want to carry a card. But, the other way would be to change rules so you have to ‘opt-out’ of organ donation. This would cause donation rates to retire. 鼓励 "理想选择 "使用率的一个有力方法是将理想的结果设定为默认选项。例如，目前，人们必须 "选择加入 "才能成为器官捐赠者。这导致了器官捐赠率的降低，因为人们不想带着一张卡片。但是，另一种方法是改变规则，使你必须 "选择不 "捐赠器官。这将导致捐赠率下降。
• Save more tomorrow™ Economists Richard Thaler and Shlomo Benartzi developed a programme called: Save More Tomorrow™. The idea is to nudge people into taking private pension plans by using behavioural economics. It uses the default choice of enrolling people in a pension scheme, with the added proviso they only start off making small contributions. Only when their wages rise, will their contributions automatically increase. It has seen saving contributions quadruple at companies which use it. (FT link) The way it designed makes the scheme very attractive, and few people choose to reject the offer. 经济学家Richard Thaler和Shlomo Benartzi制定了一个方案，叫做： Save More Tomorrow™。其想法是通过使用行为经济学来促使人们参加私人养老金计划。它使用默认的选择，让人们加入养老金计划，但附加条件是他们一开始只做少量的贡献。只有当他们的工资增加时，他们的缴款才会自动增加。在使用它的公司中，储蓄缴款已经翻了两番。(FT链接)它的设计方式使该计划非常有吸引力，很少有人选择拒绝这个提议。
• Calorie/sugar counts 卡路里/糖的计算 . To discourage unhealthy eating, the amount of sugar can be included prominently on the packaging to make consumers think twice about purchasing. Would you be less willing to bu a muffin, if it is labelled as 450 calories ? 为了阻止不健康的饮食，可以将糖的数量放在包装的显眼位置，使消费者在购买时三思而后行。如果一个松饼被标示为450卡路里，你会不会不太愿意买？
• Use of technology 使用技术 . Technology can be left to make better decisions for us. For example, when the UK behavioural team tried to reduce energy use in heating homes through education, they had little effect. But, when they trialled the use of automated technology – it was much more successful. The Nest Learning Thermostat uses sensors and machine-learning to understand the thermal properties of your building and your occupancy habits. It led to a 6% fall in energy use. 可以让技术来为我们做出更好的决定。例如，当英国的行为小组试图通过教育来减少家庭供暖的能源使用时，他们没有什么效果。但是，当他们试验使用自动化技术时--就成功多了。Nest Learning Thermostat使用传感器和机器学习来了解你的建筑的热属性和你的居住习惯。它导致能源使用下降了6%。

Examples of nudges 助推的例子

• Displaying social trust 显示社会信任 . One of the strongest nudges is to show feedback from peers. Positive reviews displayed prominently – play a significant role in encouraging people to buy. Companies may display favourable reviews next to their product. The government may also show examples of people who have benefited from certain schemes (or show images of people caught and then named and shamed for tax evasion/benefits fraud.) 最有力的推动力之一是展示来自同行的反馈。突出显示的正面评论--在鼓励人们购买方面发挥了重要作用。公司可以在其产品旁边展示有利的评论。政府也可以展示从某些计划中受益的人的例子（或者展示因*税逃**/福利欺诈而被抓到并被点名批评的人的图片）
• Specific messages 具体信息 . To reduce missed hospital appointments, most hospitals send SMS text reminders on the day. Studies suggest that changing the words of the SMS can influence how successful these text messages are. For example, if text messages mention the direct costs to the NHS for missing an appointment (£160) – it helped reduce missed appointments from 11.1% to 8.5%. (Behavioural insights Blog) 为了减少错过医院预约，大多数医院会在当天发送短信提醒。研究表明，改变短信的措辞可以影响这些短信的成功程度。例如，如果短信中提到了错过预约对NHS的直接成本（160英镑）--它有助于将错过预约的人从11.1%减少到8.5%。(行为洞察力博客)
• Encouraging certain behaviours 鼓励某些行为 . A study found that if students are sent motivating text messages, attendance rates improved. 一项研究发现，如果给学生发送激励性的短信，出勤率会提高。

Source: Behavioural insights team Blog

Commercial nudges 商业助推

Many firms use nudges to increase profit. For example 许多公司利用暗示来增加利润。比如说:

• Insurance payment protection 保险支付保护 . Banks encouraged the sale of payment protection insurance for pensions and other financial services. They were sold as an essential package for the product. But, in reality, the cost and profit margin for the bank was never fully explained. The government later made banks liable for evidence of mis-selling. 银行鼓励销售用于养老金和其他金融服务的支付保护保险。它们被作为产品的一个基本配套出售。但实际上，银行的成本和利润率从未得到充分解释。政府后来让银行对不当销售的证据负责。
• Special offers 特别优惠 . Some firms offer a free subscription for a month. But, to get the free subscription it is necessary to give credit card details and pay for a month upfront. To gain free subscription it is necessary to ring and cancel before the end of the month. But, because of the inconvenience, many consumers may end up paying more than expected. 一些公司提供一个月的免费订阅。但是，要获得免费订阅，必须提供信用卡信息，并预付一个月的费用。为了获得免费订阅，有必要在月底前打电话取消。但是，由于这种不便，许多消费者最终可能会支付比预期更多的费用。
• Pushy salespeople 催促的销售人员 . If you try to cancel certain services, e.g. internet provider. To cancel you have to ring up and a dedicated salesperson will try and discourage consumption – through offering a special discount for next three months. The strong sales pitch may nudge consumers into not changing. 如果你试图取消某些服务，例如互联网供应商。要取消你必须打电话，一个专门的销售人员会试图劝阻消费--通过提供未来三个月的特别折扣。强烈的销售宣传可能会促使消费者不改变。
• Special offer mortgage deals 特别优惠的抵押*款贷**交易 . In the early 2000s, many US consumers were offered special discounts on mortgages. It made mortgages very cheap for the first year or two – to encourage people to get the mortgage. But, after that introductory period, interest rates went up to normal levels – causing a big increase in the cost of mortgage payments. Many people defaulted on mortgages because they didn’t fully realise how much mortgage payments would rise after the end of an introductory period. This proved a cause of the credit crunch. 在21世纪初，许多美国消费者获得了抵押*款贷**的特别折扣。这使得抵押*款贷**在头一年或两年非常便宜--以鼓励人们获得抵押*款贷**。但是，在这个介绍期之后，利率上升到了正常水平--导致抵押*款贷**的支付成本大增。许多人拖欠抵押*款贷**，因为他们没有完全意识到介绍期结束后，抵押*款贷**付款会增加多少。这被证明是导致信贷紧缩的原因之一。

Evaluation of nudges 对助推的评估

There is a difference between nudging a certain behaviour and compelling a certain choice. A good nudge may be considered to be one which encourages a certain choice, but is still 助推某种行为和强迫某种选择之间是有区别的。一个好的助推可以被认为是助推某种选择，但仍然是:

• Transparent 透明化 – Make the nudge clear and obvious, not hiding costs / other options. 使鼓励措施清晰明了，不隐藏成本/其他选择。
• Choice is retained 保留选择权 – with consumer able to make the final choice. 消费者能够做出最终选择。
• Good reason to believe that the nudge is warranted, e.g. strong health costs of smoking/eating too much sugar. 有充分的理由相信鼓励是有必要的，例如吸烟/吃太多的糖会带来巨大的健康成本。
• Nudges may not be enough. To reduce smoking rates, we need policies which really tackle core problems. This may require – higher taxes, restrictions on places where you can smoke. 助推可能是不够的。为了降低吸烟率，我们需要真正解决核心问题的政策。这可能需要--更高的税收，对可以吸烟的地方进行限制。