Designing and Evaluating Community Nudges

Description

Nudges are behavioral interventions to subtly steer citizen choices by making desirable options easier or more attractive. These gentle encouragements are effective policy instruments in directing personal decisions without violating the principles of good governance. However, with a focus on individual behavior there has been less attention to nudges as a policy device for promoting decisions that are good for all of us and tackle societal challenges that require collective effort. During this course, we discuss a new outlook that seeks to understand how nudges may support communities in making decisions to shape desirable outcomes for the benefit of all. The program will be a mix of lectures and workshops; active participation by attendees who can work on their own cases is expected. The course comprises a one-week full time dedication with lectures, group work, and presentations.

The Program 

We discuss state-of-the-art theoretical insights on nudging in morning sessions with a particular focus on how the community element can be incorporated in nudging, how nudges can be co-created in close collaboration with the target audience, when and why people are nudgeable, and in what way nudge effectiveness and appreciation can be determined. In the afternoon sessions, participants will work on their own (hypothetical or real) cases either on their own or in small groups. Each day, participants present their daily progress report to ensure constructive feedback from other participants and teachers. This way, we aim to establish that all participants have a scientifically backed ready-to-implement community nudge at the end of the course.

Lecturers

Prof. dr. Denise de Ridder

Dr. Jeroen Benjamins

Dr. Robert Weijers

Target audience

Master student and academics/professionals with (preferably) some experience with (research on) behavioral interventions in a public policy setting.

Aim of the course

The main aim of this course is to familiarize participants with new developments in nudge research by designing and evaluating community nudges.

Study load

The course comprises a one-week full time dedication with lectures, group work, and presentation. Preparation for the course prior to the start of the course is mandatory and requires about 10 hours of reading papers and selecting a case one wants to works on during the course.

Tags

• nudging