Nudge in the School Environment
Thaler
and Sunstein popularised 'Nudge', the idea that our behaviour can
be changed with no cost, simply changing how choices are framed, in order
to increase our wellbeing. The Behavioural Insights Team, (also known as
the 'Nudge Unit'), has successfully introduced several measures into
our society which have increased tax revenue for the government. We all
can try to introduce 'nudges' in our own workplaces in order to ensure that
customers make the best choice for themselves, and even society as a whole.
•
At Jobcentre Plus in Loughton, Essex, a trial was introduced
whereby jobseekers were split into two groups. Group A was the
control group; they filled in up to 9 forms on arrival and had to wait for
2 weeks to speak to an adviser. Group B experienced a new, different
experience where they spoke to an adviser immediately, and set goals for the
next 2 weeks. They also discussed if they had met their goals from the previous
2 weeks. The result was that members of Group B were 15-20pc less likely to
be on benefits after 13 weeks. It seems that this was due to the
introduction of these commitment devices, whereby the unemployed had to
adhere to their goals and had a clear strategy. Conversely, Group A
participants lacked a clear strategy and were almost alienated by the Jobcentre
due to a lack of communication.
•
Another interesting policy implementation concerns a Car Tax.
Letters from the DVLA alerting drivers who did not pay tax that they had missed
the deadline, usually only received an 11pc response. However, the Nudge Unit
introduced a trial in December 2011 whereby the letter was accompanied by a
phrase along the lines of "Lose your [make of car] or pay your tax".
Payments doubled after the introduction of this personalised letter! Moreover,
a later trial also included a photograph of the driver's car- this tripled
repayments!
•
Payment of income tax increased by 15pc when residents were alerted that the
majority of residents on their street/ town had paid their taxes. It has been
estimated that should this policy be implemented nationally, £30 m of extra
revenue will be 'generated', due to the reduced costs of tax collection.
•
Usually, people fined in court do not pay their fines. Letters
usually only receive a 5pc response. However, another experiment showed that
when sent a text message with the offender's name, payments increased by 33pc!
Through an increase in payments and a reduction in paper and ink usage, this
would also save the government £30 m.
•
The government had been offering subsidised loft insulation to those
wishing to save on energy costs. However, few were capitalising on the
government's generosity. The Nudge Unit realised that the reason for the poor
response as due to the fact that residents' lofts were cluttered and they did
not have the time to declutter them. Thus, a trial offered subsidised loft
clearance to those agreeing to insulate their lofts. Despite the fact that
this scheme was more expensive for residents, more people insulated their
lofts- indeed, the number increased by a factor of 5.
•
Nudge theory can also be applied to organ donation. In Germany, where
there is an 'opt in' system for organ donation, only 12pc of the adult
population are donors. Conversely, in Austria, a country which is
demographically and economically similar to Germany, 99pc of the population are
donors- however, Austria has an 'opt out' system in place. Indeed, changing the
default can be seen to increase participation, perhaps due to the fact that
donors feel that the default is the 'right' thing to do or what the rest of
society is doing. Although an 'opt out' system may not be politically palpable
at this point in time, there are other, more subtle and gentle, ways in which
organ donation can be increased. The Nudge Unit conducted a trial whereby
different messages were introduced for one month to people renewing their car
tax online. The message which increased the number of organ donors by 100
000 relative to the control posed a rhetorical question: "If you
needed an organ transplant, would you have one? If so, please help
others."
Nudge in
the School Environment
- Sixth
Form Open Evening
We can
all make an effort to introduce nudges in our working lives, ensuring that
customers make the best choices for themselves or for society. These
Nudges can be applied to the school environment. For example, we could
introduce ‘opt out’ systems in schools rather than ‘opt in’ systems,
effectively changing the default option and so ensuring greater participation.
I have already helped to introduce this at school during the Sixth Form Open
Evening. Whereas traditionally students volunteer to help out at the
evenings, last year all students were told they should attend and those who
were unable or unwilling to attend needed to provide a reason as to why they
could not attend. Thus, on our last open evening the number of Sixth Form
helpers doubled. It could be strongly argued that this was because students
felt guilty asking not to attend and disliked the confrontation. This ‘opt out’
system can also be applied to other areas of school life, such as
extracurricular sporting activities in order to encourage Sixth Form students
to exercise more regularly, as Physical Education is removed from the timetable
upon entering Year 12.
-
Paying to attend school
An
interesting way in which some schools have implemented Nudge theory into school
lives is by paying children to attend school. A couple of poorly
performing inner city schools with poor attendance have offered to pay their
students at the end of Year 13 according to the number of days they attended
the school since Year 7 and only paying them if their attendance is above a
certain threshold. The golden rule of Economics is that ‘People respond to
incentives’ and, indeed, the students at these schools have responded to the
incentives. Attendance has increased three fold after the implementation
of the measure at one such school, as the students value the money that they
receive from attending more than they value the time off from school. It is
also interesting to note that the schools pay their students at the end of
their 7 year journey, not at the end of a week or a month. This is probably to
ensure that students maintain their attendance because after, say, a week they
may feel that they do not need to go to school the next couple of weeks because
they have gained £x.
- Posters
A further
way in which schools can be improved is through the use of posters. For
example, in a Bedfordshire hospital in 2011 posters were displayed around the
waiting room highlighting that ‘y% of patients attended their appointments’.
This further decreased the number of cancellations and non-attendances. A
similar method could be applied in classrooms with regard to homework. Students
would feel that they should maintain the standard of the class and so hand in
their homework on time.
- Deadlines
Furthermore,
another local Sixth Form college has introduced a messaging service
where teachers alert their students of impending deadlines using a school
mobile phone. This would remind students of deadlines in the future, ensuring
that they do not miss them. This could be broadened with larger schools setting
up a page on the school website where each student has an online personalised
timetable which is connected to the class teacher’s. Teachers could set
homework and deadlines on their own timetables and this could automatically
appear on students’ individual timetables. This would ensure that all students
would know what homework they need to do and when the deadline is and so would
reduce the frantic “Did we have homework?” panic two minutes before the said
history essay is due in. Thus, it would increase productivity in schools as it
should increase the number of students completing their work and leave students
with more time to do extra work or relax ‘two minutes before’ the lesson. This
scheme would also save money because, although the school would need to buy the
computer software, money would be saved in the long run as the school would not
be purchasing planners and organisers. Therefore, this would ensure that more
schools have more money to spend on new textbooks, ensuring that each student
has a textbook for themselves in each subject that they are taking, for
example. Thus, students would have a greater number of resources to study from,
thus increasing their knowledge and thus ‘output’, if this is measured by knowledge/
exam results, and so productivity.
- Your
Nudges
These are
just some of the ways in which Nudge theory has been implemented into school
lives. Comment below with your ideas on how Nudge theory has been/ can be used
in your place of work- I'd be interested in your ideas!
References:
http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2013/may/02/nudge-unit-has-it-worked
Image: http://i.cbc.ca/1.3004117.1426907026!/fileImage/httpImage/image.jpg_gen/derivatives/16x9_460/nudge-orange.jpg
References:
http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2013/may/02/nudge-unit-has-it-worked
Image: http://i.cbc.ca/1.3004117.1426907026!/fileImage/httpImage/image.jpg_gen/derivatives/16x9_460/nudge-orange.jpg
