HOLISTIC HEALTH: NUDIGING PEOPLE TO THEIR BEST SELF

©The Verge

Behavioural Economics ("BE") is a step change in our understanding of how people behave; it can be used to transform the way people make economic and personal choices including those related to an organisation’s services. In particular, it challenges the view that people make decisions rationally. According to behavioural economists, Cass Sunstein and Richard Thaler, utilising choice architecture helps organizing the context in which people make decisions. It means reducing choice overload by integrating indirect suggestions and using positive reinforcement towards a favoured outcome.

Mark Parker, CEO of Nike, says it is about helping people choose by curating options and simplifying making hard decisions. Nike has do fewer things better, and make sure that the company's innovation agenda is built around true deep consumer value. In a report about patient adoption of mHealth, Greg Weidner of Carolinas HealthCare System adds: “You really have to simplify digital health solutions, so they make it easier for patients to do the right thing. You have to take into consideration that not everyone is digitally savvy and avoid introducing the additional barrier of understanding complex technology." 

BE is increasingly being used at a macro and a micro level in the world of health. Combing BE with ICT solutions can help people monitor their own health and support the creation of healthy habits. When it comes to healthy living, we often know what we ‘should’ do, but we do not always do it. Leveraging BE techniques, such as choice architecture, can help companies to frame and guide people to make better choices, or avoid the wrong ones.