Ben Newell | Nudges for people who think

• May 18, 2021
• Speaker: Ben Newell
  
• Topic: Nudges For People Who Think
  

The application of behavioural insights is often predicated on the notion that people are passive recipients of information. Our tendencies to be cognitively lazy, to avoid mental effort and to seek the ‘free-lunch’ are often given as the reasons we need to be ‘nudged’ into doing what is best for us (and/or for society). Such approaches play down people’s fundamental need to make sense of their world; to act as “intuitive scientists” trying to create the best explanations for the situations that confront them. In this talk I present preliminary ideas about the implications of treating behavior change as a two-way interaction between the nudger and the nudgee. The talk will build on recent frameworks that have highlighted the role of social sensemaking and argue that more research is needed on this under-appreciated aspect of behavioural insights.

Ben Newell is a Professor of Cognitive Psychology and Deputy Head of the School of Psychology at the University of New South Wales. His research focusses on the cognitive processes underlying judgment, choice and decision making, and the application of this knowledge to environmental, medical, financial and forensic contexts. He is the lead author of Straight Choices: The Psychology of Decision Making.

He is currently an Associate Editor of Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, on the Editorial Boards of Thinking & Reasoning, Decision, Journal of Behavioral Decision Making and Experimental Psychology. Ben is also a Consulting Editor for Judgment & Decision Making.
Ben is a member of the inaugural Academic Advisory Panel of the Behavioural Economics Team of the Australian Government.