The «gentle push» theory involves an ambiguous paternalism – Corriere.it

Nudge or “gentle push”. Born from the encounter between cognitive psychology and economics, the branch of knowledge defined as «behaviorist economics» and which is currently one of the most interesting fields of the human sciences, is a forge of ideas and theories which causes much debate among specialists and which has now also attracted the attention of governments, especially in the Anglo-Saxon world. Since 2008 when Richard Thaler and Cass Sunstein proposed it, on the theme of nudge rivers of ink have been written.

The idea is that the task of those who hold decision-making power is to stimulate (push) people so that they are able to understand what, for various reasons, they often do not understand, i.e. what they are the most rational choices for them, those that can improve their own well-being. The foundation rests on another idea which, according to some, appears confirmed by neuroscientific experiments, namely that the human brain is divided into two parts, one rational and one non-rational (dominated by irrationality and prejudices). It would be a question of “pushing” people to make choices by activating the rational part and setting aside the irrational.

Riccardo Viale, currently a professor at the Milano-Bicocca University and at Luiss, a philosopher of the human sciences, and a specialist in behavioral sciences and cognitive economics, in a recent volume (nudgingMassachussetts Institute of Technology Press, 2022), has tackled, with great competence but also with the ability to be understood by non-specialistsall the complicated and controversial problems that are connected to this issue.

However annoying it may be to take note of it, there is now abundant evidence, accumulated over the decades by cognitive sciences, and which Viale illustrates in this book, of the fact that our daily choices are conditioned by mental automatisms and by illusions and cognitive distortions. Our rationality is limited, we continually fall into mental traps, we make logical errors, we are often overwhelmed by our prejudices. Even when we believe we do our best to protect our interests, those that we portray as our interests. This creates two problems. A practical one, very practical. And a theoretical one. And the two problems interact.

The first problem is that our societies, especially Western democratic societies, are organized on the assumption that people know themselves (their desires, their aspirations) better than a benevolent dictator could know them, and that is precisely what legitimizes the existence of regimes that protect personal freedom. Except that, the limits of our rationality they open wide spaces to forms of manipulation that continually push us to do things that we would not do without that manipulation (think of how algorithms already condition consumer choices, political beliefs, etc.).

The other problem concerns the study of human behavior. Whether we are dealing with economics or law (but the question concerns all the human sciences), too often scholars resort to a conception of unrealistic human rationalitywhich does not correspond to what is now known about the mental mechanisms that guide our decisions.

The merits of this volume are above all two. The first consists in a survey of a field of study – the behavioral sciences – which, starting from the pioneering work of the multifaceted social scientist and Nobel Prize winner Herbert Simon and those of the psychologists Daniel Kahneman (also Nobel prize winner) and Amos Tversky, he has established himself, both in terms of experimental research and in terms of theoretical elaboration, as one of the richest and most stimulating of the human sciences. To the point that specialists in other sectors (economists, political scientists, jurists, sociologists, historians) would make a mistake in not being interested in it.

The second advantage, and above all the originality of the volume, is that Viale does not limit himself to presenting the results of a particular scientific field. Go further, reflect on practical consequences of the applicationor of the possible application of these theories, that of nudge first.

Consider that both US President Bill Clinton and British Prime Minister David Cameron were so fascinated by these ideas that they supported the need for governments (their own in the first place) to make use of them. Viale warns against the risk that, despite the good intentions of its proponents, the “benevolent paternalism” towards which the theory of nudge it wants to direct policy makers, degenerate into something else. That is, that the theory ends up being the justification, the scientific legitimation of forms of malignant rather than benevolent paternalism. A sophisticated way of politically manipulating individuals.

Viale devotes insightful pages to the fact that decision makers are also, like everyone else, people with limited rationality and victims, like everyone else, of prejudices and distorted visions of reality. Furthermore, he shows how scientific evidence is far from univocal: the theory according to which a rational and a non-rational part act separately in the human brain is very probably wrong. The risk of manipulation, even of the manipulation in good faith, is very high. Much better to bet on what the author calls self nudging. Providing good education, allowing people to be exposed to different ideas and different experiences, so that they don’t hear just one bell, can weaken prejudices and reduce (though, of course, they cannot be eliminated) the amount of cognitive errors in which each of us stumbles.

It is to be hoped that this book, due to its quality and cutting-edge themes which he deals with, will soon be made available to Italian readers.

The volume

The essay by Riccardo Viale nudging is published by Massachusetts Institute of Technology Press (256 pages, $27.95). It is a reflection on the hypothesis, put forward by authoritative scholars, of favoring certain choices on the part of citizens with recourse to a “gentle push” to encourage them. Born in Turin in 1952, Riccardo Viale is full professor of behavioral sciences and cognitive economics at the University of Milan Bicocca. He is also a professor of behavioral economics at the School of Government and at the School of European Public Economics of Luiss. He has held various positions and from 2010 to 2014 he was director of the Italian Cultural Institute in New York. Among his books, Beyond the nudge. Freedom of choice, happiness and behavior (the Mill, 2018)