Title: Of Noodge and Nudge, of Slob and Schlub » Mosaic
Headings: Of Noodge and Nudge, of Slob and Schlub
Of Noodge and Nudge, of Slob and Schlub
Observation
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Content: What made me think of “noodge” (this is the spelling I’ll use here) was a letter written to the Hebrew newspaper Haaretz by Maya Bar-Hillel, a well-known Israeli behavioral psychologist. Bar-Hillel was commenting on an article in the paper that referred to “Nudge Theory”—which, for the uninitiated, is an approach to public policy expounded by the legal scholar Cass Sunstein and the economist Richard Thaler in their 2008 book, Nudge: Improving Decisions About Health, Wealth, and Happiness. Arguing there for a “liberal paternalism” based on “nudges,” Sunstein and Thaler define these as any governmental or institutional intervention that “alters people’s behavior in a predictable way without forbidding [other] options.” Nudges are never coercive, as would be, say, banning the sale of junk food. By contrast, mandating that fruit in a school cafeteria be displayed more conspicuously than junk food so as to increase its consumption at junk food’s expense would qualify as a nudge. In her letter, Bar-Hillel accused the author of the Haaretz article of confusing the “nudge” of Nudge Theory with the Yiddish-derived word “noodge.” Citing a sentence in the Hebrew article—“People do not want paternalism, and noodges [ nidnudim] do not help”—Bar-Hillel wrote: Sign Up For Our E-Mail List Get the latest from Mosaic right in your inbox
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The meaning of the English word “nudge” is a gentle push, not “pestering” [ nidnud ]. . . . A nudge is [something that] inclines people in a given direction without constraining their freedom of choice.