Lesson 9-1

A "nudge" is a gentle push a friend gives you

to get your attention.

However,

you can also be nudged by strangers

for other purposes.

What's more,

you may not even know what's happening.

You are at a subway station

in Stockholm,

Sweden.

You get off the subway

and look for a way

to get to the street.

You find stairs of black and white keys

-like huge piano keys-

leading up to the exit.

When you step on the keys,

they make piano like sounds.

You can take the escalator if you want,

but you'll probably choose the musical stairs

because they are so much fun.

At the same time,

you will be exercising.

The experimental piano stairs

resulted in a 66% increase

in the use of steps.

A "nudge" is a little change

that leads you to do something

you may not have planned to do.

Nudges came to popular attention in 2008

when Richard H. Thaler and Cass R. Sunstein

published Nudge:

Improving Decisions about Health,

Wealth,

and Happiness.

The basic idea is to design an environment

which makes it easy for people

to do the right thing,

or at least to do

what you want them to do.

In many countries,