#3 Nudge or Noodge? The growing gap between the people, and experts on nudging.

The Economist recently published a story on Nudges or behavioural interventions. The story goes into publication bias and what real world evidence of successful intervention looks like. Nudges being successful or not are a piece for longer conversation. I am interested in the letters that were published in response to the piece. One was from David Halpern, the Chief Executive of Behavioural Insights Team. In his letter he makes a cogent argument for understanding the behavioural interventions and the fact that they are rooted in context. Halpern also wrote about a study reviewing 347 BIT (Behaviour Insights Team) and American government interventions recently published in Econometrica. The review concluded that the interventions were "sizeable and highly statistically significant". The review of the paper would be in the Behavioural at a later date.

It is the second letter that was fascinating, written by Alan Lewis from Fair Lawn, New Jersey. Mr. Lewis argues for substituting "Noodge" for "Nudge". Noodge he says better conveys the unwelcome intrusions that the article describes. Noodge, I found out, means someone who annoys someone consistently. This is largely uncharitable to those who do this professionally and with an aim to better the institutional mechanism for furthering the fruits of development using various means from the toolbox of BE.

However, it does point to a widening gap between the practitioners of the field and their intended beneficiaries. Perhaps a two-way conversation between the two would help set up the context better, and explain the challenges of achieving compliance in complex society.