Читать книгу Sustainable Management for Managers and Engineers - Группа авторов - Страница 15

Behavioral economics has developed over the last few decades in opposition to rational economics, which assumes that people rationally maximize self-interest. Humans are not homo economicus, who consistently use rational judgment, as defined by John Stuart Mill in the 19th Century in his Principles of Political Economy [MIL 48]. Rather, humans behave in surprising and irrational ways. Due to cognitive limitations, people use heuristics or rules of thumb to speed up the process of finding a satisfactory outcome and to ease the cognitive load of making a decision. These mental shortcuts are quick, effortless and work efficiently in routine decision-making, however, mental shortcuts do not work well all the time. Frequently, people are affected by cognitive bias as they process information and, consequently, act against their own self-interest [TVE 74]. And, they do so in ways that are systematic and predictable.

Daniel Kahneman, an influential psychologist – who was awarded the 2002 Nobel Prize in Economics for bridging economics and psychology – has distinguished two types of thinking that govern the decision-making process – System 1 (S1) and System 2 (S2). S1 is a fast, unconscious, effortless, automatic and error-prone system used in everyday decision-making (based on heuristics and rules of thumb). S2 is a slow, conscious, effortful, reliable system used for complex decision-making. S1 works quite well in routine decisions – most of the time. While S2 produces better decision-making, it makes heavy demands on our cognitive resources, and would therefore require an effort beyond what is humanly possible; humans cannot constantly be in S2 mode. Humans fluctuate between S1 and S2, and most often, rely on S1 [KAH 11]. Nudging can be very effective when used with the S1 way of thinking because nudging does not compete with this way of processing information. It respects S1 thinking and uses clues to influence a person’s choice. Nudges often seek either trigger or avoid the use of certain heuristics of S1.