Heuristics in “nudge” theory-overview (Thaler & Sunstein, 2009) | |
1. Anchoring and adjustment | Using known facts and adjusting them to estimate or decide something which is unknown. |
2. Familiarity and Status quo bias | The more familiar something is, the more frequently, it is used/communicated. A misplaced sense of trust may be developed. These heuristics are influenced by advertising and mass media, and fear of the unknown. |
3. Over-optimism | People tend to under-estimate costs, timescales, and challenges, and to over-estimate rewards and the ease of dealing with unknown things. |
4. Loss aversion | The tendency for people to value actual possessions (or gains) more than potential possessions (or gains)-this creates inertia and impedes making changes. People do not like to lose possession of things, irrespective of their actual value/importance. |
5. Framing | Framing is an individual’s method of heuristically understanding reality. It can therefore include many ways of distorting the attractiveness/unattractiveness of something. |
6. Conforming with the population | People have the need for affirmation, and wish to avoid risk or embarrassment. Cultural factors enhance these effects. |