Here’s the nudge – too much choice isn’t always best

Call it a nudge, call it a wink, call it manipulation, but it’s still not behavioural (‘nudge’) economics unless there’s empiricism involved, writes Verona Burgess.

One problem for the federal government as it tries to have its cake and eat it too on carbon emissions, embodied in prime minister Scott Morrison’s Houdini-like conversion to electric cars while refusing to phase out internal combustion engines, is that more choice isn’t necessarily better.

Contrary to traditional economic beliefs, people don’t always make the choice that is most rational and best for themselves, let alone for society.

This was a lightbulb moment for the 2017 Nobel prizewinning behavioural economist Professor Richard Thaler when, one evening in the early 2000s, he whisked away a rapidly emptying bowl of cashew nuts from his guests lest they spoil their appetites for dinner, and they thanked him for removing the choice.

As a human perception, it’s not rocket science.