Have you been 'nudged' recently, to behave in a more environmentally or economically-sustainable way? While you might not know it, chances are, you have. A nudge is any aspect of the 'choice architecture' that alters people's behaviour in a predictable way, without removing any options or changing economic consequences. The authors complement the existing literature on Nudging-based on seminal research by Richard Thaler and Cass Sunstein-by providing practitioners with several guidelines for developing nudges of their own. They describe 12 possible types of nudges-a 'taxonomy' of nudging-and show that developing nudges is an interdisciplinary process that is project-based and experimental in nature. As they indicate, nudging is a powerful approach that is now being applied effectively in both for-profit and individual welfare domains.

The typical approach to reducing dishonesty - increasing the probability of being caught or the magnitude of punishment - isn't very effective. The authors argue that a psychologically-focused approach may be more effective. Whereas the standard economic perspective considers one cause for dishonesty - external reward mechanisms - and thus emphasizes the probability of being caught and the magnitude of punishment as the sole ways to overcome it, the authors uncover three other causes: they not only examine dishonest behavior caused by external rewards, but dishonest behavior caused by a lack of internalized social norms, by a lack of self-awareness, and by self-deception.