Living well by design : an account of permissible public nudging

• Main Author: Niker, Fay
• Published: University of Warwick 2017
• Subjects: 320; JA Political science (General)
• Online Access: https://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.731349

The thesis provides a full assessment of the moral permissibility of a set of new belief and behaviour modification techniques, now commonly known as “nudges”, which are grounded in and justified by reference to our new insights into human psychology. It asks what forms of nudging are permissible in light of the state’s new understanding of its capacity to modify behaviour using these insights; and it develops an ethico-political account of living well that directs this normative investigation. There are two main strands to this analysis of public nudging, one relating to behaviour change policies designed for the sake of the target and the other relating to those designed for the sake of others. Across both strands, it is argued that the kinds of interventions that are permissible share a similar character: specifically, they are compatible with creating and sustaining the conditions for living well, on account of their playing an ecological-educative role in supporting citizens’ personal autonomy and practical reasoning. The thesis uses its in-depth normative analysis as the basis for engaging with current practices in behavioural policymaking and for setting out an ethically-sensitive policy framework to guide the design of nudge interventions in practice. The extended argument presented in these pages offers a distinctive and timely contribution to this debate, setting out arguably the most sustained and complete philosophical assessment of the ethics of nudging in the literature to date.