California State Senate President Pro Tempore Kevin De Leon thinks California needs a nudge — a digital nudge, that is.
De Leon invited Professor Schlomo Benartzi of UCLA to speak to senate staff last week about “digital nudging,” a relatively new field of science that combines both behavioral analysis and new and developing technologies to help people make better decisions.
Put simply, as the co-chair of the Behavioral Decision-Making Group at UCLA’s Anderson School of Management, Benartzi studies the ways that people act differently online and through their devices. Benartzi says that people, in general, are more likely to be honest and forthcoming about what they want behind the relative anonymity of a smartphone or laptop. He has worked with both the White House and the British government on similar projects, and recently released a new book on the subject, The Smarter Screen: Surprising Ways to Influence and Improve Online Behavior.
“This emerging field combines behavioral insights and new technologies [that] will help empower citizens in making better decisions in their daily lives. My hope is through these new digital tools we can develop measures that save people energy, increase retirement savings for millions, and make college more accessible to all Californians,” De Leon announced on Facebook.
De Leon said it also might be applied to change how people vote, how often homeowners water their lawns during a drought or help constituents voice their opinions on a variety of issues.
“I believe digital nudging has the potential to make a huge difference on a number of critical societal issues, ranging from retirement savings to voter turnout and water conservation,” said Benartzi in a press release from De Leon’s office. “California is perfectly positioned to lead the way.” According to the same release, “In recent years, the public and private sectors have used nudges to save energy, make college more accessible, and increase the savings rates of millions of Americans.”
At a meeting in Australia last year, Benartzi was able to demonstrate that by showing people age-enhanced photos of themselves — that is to say, altered pictures of themselves as they might look when they are older — the test subjects were encouraged to put more money away to make their older avatar “look” happier. The more money they saved, the happier their picture became, and through this digital nudging, the test subjects were generally convinced that they ought to be saving more money for their retirement years.
There are numerous applications that De Leon and Benartzi and his team might work together on behalf of the state of California; the senator said he pleased to say that he thinks California is “uniquely positioned to develop a Digital Nudge Initiative for other states to follow.”
