Against Nudge Choice Architecture and Design Jayson Margalus and Nathan Matteson

Open Abstract

This paper examines the fundamental incompatibility between nudge theory, as developed by Richard Thaler and Cass Sunstein, and design, rooted in aesthetics and metaphor. While nudge theory seeks to influence human behavior through choice architecture, simplifying decision-making using behavioral economics and cognitive science, design operates within the realms of aesthetics, abstraction, and emergent interaction. The paper argues that the reductionist, outcome-driven methods of nudge theory conflict with the pluralistic, reflective processes central to design. Drawing on the philosophical works of José Ortega y Gasset and Graham Harman, this paper critiques the over-simplification of human behavior in nudge theory and its misapplication to design practices. Through case studies and philosophical analysis, the paper reveals that integrating nudge into design diminishes creativity and undermines the reflective, emergent qualities that define true design work. This critique calls for a reconsideration of how b

Open Introduction

Design is its own field of understanding that stands alongside others like religion, philosophy, art, and science. While the field of design might be informed by others, it is distinct. In practice, design focuses on the organization or arrangement of objects -- which might include phones, atoms, the earth, mineral deposits within the earth, people, emotions, etc. -- as well as the interactions among those objects, and finally the aesthetics that emerge from those interactions. In its pursuit of these aesthetics, design seeks to create a representation of some thing-itself. In the creation of these imperfect re-presentations, design, in effect, creates metaphors that emerge from interaction with and among objects.

Aesthetics and metaphor are inextricably tied together. Spanish philosopher José Ortega y Gasset asserts that “the esthetic object and the metaphorical object are the same [emphasis added], or rather that metaphor is the elementary esthetic object ... [and] satisfies us precisely because in i

Open Choice Architecture and Nudge

Three guiding principles of ethical choice architecture

Like many theories, choice architecture has its own guiding principles. According to Thaler and Sunstein, choice architecture “helps people make the choices that they would have made if they had paid full attention and possessed complete information, unlimited cognitive ability, and complete self-control.” Nudges, which are the product of choice architecture, are “any aspect of the choice architecture that alters people’s behavior in a predictable way without forbidding any options or significantly changing their economic incentives.”

The three guiding principles of a good nudge are:

• All nudging should be transparent and never misleading.
• It should be as easy as possible to opt out of the nudge, preferably with as little as one mouse click.
• There should be good reason to believe that the behavior being encouraged will improve the welfare of those being nudged.

The subjective nature of these principles _(what is transparency, after a

Open Not Science

Design and Aesthetics

The study of aesthetics and metaphor is deeply intertwined. Metaphor alludes to the truth without being truthful -- an abstract painting is the representation of the truth of something, but is not the thing itself, as Harman puts it. Aesthetics give us insight into the real without direct access to it, as if reality hid behind a veil where we could see shadows and shapes, but not the actual details. In design practice, this means that aesthetics emerge from our interactions with other objects, giving us insight into what those objects represent. These aesthetics emerge from feedback.

As opposed to a subject-object ontology (as described earlier), design’s approach is pluralistic. A pluralistic approach to design looks at the way objects interact with each other at all scales. When an individual’s behavior is nudged, a pluralist might focus less on the outcomes that emerge from their interactions. Instead, they might also ask: how does this affect the individual internally,

Open Objections

Design and Choice Architecture Frameworks

Nudge appears in design in many ways. In academic literature, there are many proposed methods for implementing it.

In Nudge Your Customers Toward Better Choices, a piece published in the Harvard Business Review (HBR), Goldstein et al. argue that there are two kinds of nudges in product design: mass defaults and personalized defaults. Put differently, there are nudges in product design that can apply to all of your customers, and defaults that can be designed into products that cater to groups or individuals through data collection and recommendations. Nudges are not necessarily behavioral changes aimed at broad groups, then, but can be applied to individuals. This would seem to require more than common heuristics that the authors of Nudge have anticipated, since individual preferences (whether it’s your favorite food, color, or dislike for the TV show Hogan’s Heroes) would also need to be considered. A choice architect in this instance would not be an expe

Open Conclusion

Including nudge in design contradicts the aim of design -- almost without being aware of these very contradictions. In design, aesthetics serve more than the user's needs, but also their desires. “Design ideally is about service on behalf of the other—not merely about changing someone's behavior for their own good or convincing them to buy products and services.”

Yet choice architecture is precisely an exercise focused on changing behavior without addressing the vital role that aesthetics and service to the user have in design. Design addresses our desires by treating objects as particular representations of the truth, while disregarding the notion that we can understand the truth itself. We are godlike in creation, but not in our ability to understand what those creations will bring forth.

In this way, design stands in opposition to science and, by extension, choice architecture which attempts to exert process and prescription upon the very nature of being. Choice architecture would claim that we a