A consumer who buys a modern television may not know the best configuration to make good use of the device. In this case, if the equipment is already pre-configured, according to the best choice suggested by specialist technicians, it will be something positive for it. This does not mean that the consumer will not have the freedom to change the settings, but, by receiving the best usage suggestion, they will have a better experience using the equipment from the beginning.
The prior choice, made rationally and by qualified people, is what economist Richard H. Thaler, winner of the 2017 Nobel Prize in Economics, would call “Nudge”, or “nudge”, according to a translation by professor Fernando Nogueira da Costa , from the Unicamp Institute of Economics, a scholar in the field of Behavioral Economics and knowledgeable about Thaler's work.
Thaler, 72 years old, is American, professor at the University of Chicago and co-author (with Cass Sunstein) of the book “Nudge – The Push for the Right Choice”. The announcement of the Nobel Prize in Economics was on the morning of this Monday, 9th. The story of the consumer was the way that Professor Fernando found to explain in a very didactic way one of Thaler's main contributions to economics.
According to the Unicamp professor, the fact that Thaler won the Nobel Prize means that the Swedish Academy of Sciences values innovation in policies aimed at improving social well-being. “If all human knowledge helps in making better decisions and if this knowledge is socialized, the better for all of us”, he pointed out. The professor reminds conservative critics of Thaler's proposal that freedom of individual choice continues to exist, as anyone can change the previous or "default" orientation.
In a post On his blog, the Unicamp professor detailed the theory developed by Thaler and his main contributions, including several practical examples. Behavioral Economics, according to Costa, criticizes the premise of economic theory that decisions made by economic agents are always made rationally. For the behavioral current, the influence of the emotional and stressful component influences decision-making and can lead to mistakes. Therefore, Thaler's idea of “a push to guide a right choice” deserves the award.
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