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19Oct2009
A 'Nudge' for literacy?

Posted by Jonathan Douglas

Thaler and Sunstein are experts in behavioural science. They are also the authors of a book called Nudge which recommends techniques to help us improve the choices we make with benefits to our health, wealth and happiness.

No choices are ever presented in an entirely neutral way. Even a genuinely random placement of dishes on a school canteen counter can influence the relative popularity of salad over chips. Whilst the authors of Nudge are committed to individual freedom of choice, they do believe that it is legitimate to consider how we can ‘tailor’ choice to allow more people to make decisions that have positive benefits. They call this libertarian paternalism. If you are involved in the ‘tailoring’ of choice, Nudge is a book you might consider reading.

There is plenty of evidence to suggest that we aren’t terribly good at making decisions. To make consistently perfect decisions would require full attention, complete information, unlimited cognitive ability and complete self-control. ‘Nudges’ are designed to help us fallible humans improve the quality of our lives, supporting our decision-making when we need most assistance, but without ever insisting on a particular decision if we are disinclined to make it.

National Literacy Trust research (1) has confirmed that reading has an image problem. For self-professed ‘non-readers’ it is seen as boring, and designed for ‘Johnnie no-mates’. They do not see the relevance of reading to their lives outside school, nor do they claim to see the significant differences to life chances that improved literacy could support. Some well-considered nudges could help, and could also increase the number of new parents who talk to their babies as a priority, and of dads who decide to read stories to their children on a regular basis.

For a nudge to be successful it needs to be ‘anchored’. You are unlikely to choose well when you don’t know what the decision will ‘look like’ or what the benefits of that decision will be. It is hard to overstate the impact of peer pressure - we nudge each other all the time - and social influences are very powerful.

Framing nudges sensitively is key, it also depends on the values of those you are trying to support. ‘Children who are read to, get ahead’ may work well for some, but be off-putting to others. Effective nudges for literacy have to be based on detailed knowledge of the behaviours and personal priorities of those we wish to target. There are lots of parallels between ‘nudges’ and social marketing and the work we started during the National Year of Reading (2008).

Did you know that just by asking someone if they intend to do something, they are more likely to do it? (It’s called ‘Priming’ apparently.) You can accentuate the impact of this effect by asking when and how someone might ‘do’ the thing you are nudging them towards? Combined with the ‘default’ nudge – for example everyone in your town being automatically given library membership, with an ‘opt out’ clause – you have yourself the makings of a very potent nudge.

Finally, we need great mapping to support nudges. Are books and other reading materials, and the spaces in which they are displayed and shared, ‘explained’ in a way that enables people without previous experience to make good decisions? How easy are book jackets to read?

The concept of the nudge has proved appealing to thinkers and opinion formers around Whitehall, and we know that it is already influencing policy for the future. It could be a powerful tool to support changes in attitudes and behaviours to literacy and reading.

Honor Wilson-Fletcher, October 2009

(1) Young people's self-perception as readers: An investigation including family, peer and school influences Clark, Osborne and Akerman, January 2008