Using Nudge Theory to Build Inclusive Workplaces
Wouldn’t it be great if you could ethically guide decision making around diversity and inclusion in your organisation? Well, now you can, using nudge theory. Created by Richard H. Thaler and Cass R. Sunstein, it became popular in their 2008 book, Nudge: improving decisions about health, wealth and happiness.
This modern theory helps us understand how we can use common processes and automatic thinking to help people improve their decisions. And how we can design decision making processes to encourage cultural change, including the creation of more inclusive workplaces.
Explaining Nudge
In nudge theory, people who design decision making processes are called ‘choice architects’. These individuals have the responsibility for organising the context or framework in which people make decisions.
Many people are choice architects without even realising it. For example, if you design recruitment advertisements or employee surveys, or you create employee compensation packages, you are creating options and influencing how people will choose from them. By better understanding the psychology behind decision making, you can ‘nudge’ choices in a particular direction.
At the heart of decision design architecture is choice. As Thaler and Sunstein state: “A nudge is any aspect of the choice architecture that alters people’s behaviour in a predictable way without forbidding any options or significantly changing their economic incentives. Nudges are not mandates. Putting the fruit at eye level counts as a nudge. Banning junk food does not.”
Nudges don’t attempt to make it impossible to do the wrong thing but make it easier to do the right thing.
Nudge Theory in Practice
One example of nudge design comes from Google. A team of behavioural science PhD holders conducted surveys of snacking patterns and collected data on the proximity of tubs of M&M chocolates to any given employee. They consulted academic papers on food psychology and launched an experiment.
They wanted to understand what would happen if the company kept the chocolates hidden in opaque containers but prominently displayed healthy snacks in glass jars.
The results were astounding. In the New York office alone, employees consumed 3.1 million fewer calories from M&Ms over seven weeks. That’s a decrease of nine vending machine-size packages of M&Ms for each of the office’s 2,000 employees.
In another study, Google tried to get workers to drink more water. It stored bottled water at eye-level behind clear glass. It then put sugary drinks at the bottom of refrigerators and behind frosted glass.
After several weeks, water consumption increased by 47% while the calories consumed by drinking sugary beverages fell by 7%. In these examples, choice architects made major improvements to the lives of others by creating user friendly environments that helped people make better decisions.
Nudge Theory is Coming to the UK
Nudges can have huge effects. A classic illustration is the difference in levels of organ donation between countries.
When people see the huge difference in figures in the graph below, they often speculate that the cause is something major like religion or culture. However, similar countries have very different levels of organ donations. For example, Denmark and Sweden, the Netherlands and Belgium, Austria and Germany. We usually think of these countries as similar in terms of culture and religion, yet the levels of organ donations vary significantly.
What explains these differences? It turns out that it comes down to form design. Countries that ask people to opt out of organ donation have much higher rates of donation than countries where people must check a box to opt in. In both cases, large populations adopt the default position.
Why Does Nudge Theory Work?
Psychologist Daniel Kahneman explains that humans use two systems – aptly named one and two – of thinking. In the Nudge book, Thaler calls this ‘the automatic system’ and ‘the reflective system’.
| Two Cognitive Systems | |
| Automatic System / System One | Reflective System / System Two |
| Uncontrolled – gut reaction | Controlled – conscious thought |
| Effortless | Effortful |
| Associative | Deductive |
| Fast | Slow |
| Unconscious | Self-aware |
| Skilled | Rule-following |
By using Nudge theory, we can make design decisions that will help people access their automatic thinking when appropriate.
How Does This Connect to Diversity and Inclusion?
When organisations are looking to improve Diversity and Inclusion, they often will run unconscious bias workshops. When we work with unconscious bias, we are getting people raise awareness of their biases which is using their ‘system two’ thinking. This is essential for diversity and inclusion (D&I) work, but we can also use nudge theory to understand some of the automatic thinking processes. By doing so, we can push unconscious thinking in a non-intrusive way to deliver inclusive thinking and decision making.
Inclusive Nudges
In the book ‘Inclusive Nudges’ by Tina C. Neilson and Lisa Kepinski they develop the work by Thaler to consider how we can create inclusive nudges. They propose three types of inclusive nudges
- Feel the need
- Process
- Framing
Feel the Need Inclusive Nudges
These nudges can motivate people to change behaviour by feeling the need for change rather than having to understand a rational argument. We can create lightbulb or ‘a-ha’ moments that can then be enhanced by ‘follow the herd’ behaviours.
Examples could be:
- Challenging split decisions
- Using real life scenarios
- Getting people to share their story
- Using benchmarks from competitors
- Challenging ‘in group’ thinking and affinity bias
- Social capital self-analysis
Process Inclusive Nudges
Examples include:
This kind of nudge is based on altering systems and processes to help make better decisions. The aim is to make it easier to be inclusive by using unconscious decision-making processes to make choices – such as opt out rather than an opt in.
- Regular rather than annual performance reviews to avoid the halo effect or proximity bias
- Inclusive team meetings that use agendas, small groups and brainstorming activities
- Blind screenings for jobs
- Reducing automatic selection for projects
- Getting people to argue for another’s points
Framing Inclusive Nudges
This nudge is intended to help people perceive issues related to D&I differently and to alter the frame or anchor. It is about challenging existing biases, stereotypes or ways of thinking. The aim is to nudge thinking so D&I is primed with positive or neutral associations.
Examples could include:
- Creating conversations around minority groups rather than the majority
- Using role models
- Getting people to argue for diversity rather than assuming the status quo
- Using different pictures to challenge stereotypes around workplace
- Getting managers to argue ‘why not’ so they realise there is no business case against diversity
- Changing images that reflect leadership
Practical Tools to Support Your Organisation
If D&I nudges sounds like something that could help your organisation, the Inclusive Nudges book gives lots of practical examples of ideas for facilitating training or workshops. Or take a look at the resources on their website. There are also a couple of Ted talks from the authors that could be worth checking out too:
- Outsmarting our brains to mitigate bias in talent decisions
- Nudge behaviour for a more inclusive world
If you would like to find out more about Diversity and Inclusion, refer to the resources on our reading list.
For bespoke diversity and inclusion consulting for your organisation, contact CMC Business Psychology Ltd on 07594 946166 or at [email protected].
