Karl-Dieter Opp Recommends “Nudge: Improving Decisions About Health, Wealth, and Happiness” by Richard H. Thaler and Cass R. Sunstein

Abstract

The book proposes a wide version of the economic model. The assumption of perfect information is dropped, and all kinds of preferences are admitted. Not only egoism, but also, e.g., the motivation to follow accepted norms or to gain status are included. This allows a better explanations of many phenomena such as rule following, sanctioning or voting. Only such a model can be used for “libertarian paternalism” assuming that people can be influenced by “small changes in context.”