When placing people in a situation where they need to make a choice from an array of options it’s often wise and beneficial to offer a default mode among those options. The purpose of this is to subtly nudge people in the direction you desire them to go without taking away their right to freely choose one’s choice.
Statistics have shown that more times than not, there’s a tendency for people to settle for the default mode as it puts less of a demand on them to think. The more choices you provide, the more you’re taxing them to weigh multiple options as they rack their brains to assess the pros and cons of each.
As much as we all love the idea of being given as many choices as possible so we can make the best decision, in reality, too many options quickly exasperate us. Like Richard Thaler insightfully pointed out in Nudge, a book he co-authored with Cass Sunstein.
There is a tendency for people to believe there’s an implicit endorsement of the default option by the default setter. This often leads them to leave it as it is. Why? So as not to risk losing out on any potential benefit. The decisions we make as human beings on a daily basis are often subconsciously driven by our aversion to incurring loss, hence the need to be safe.
Instead of the government giving commands which often trigger resistance from people, it is smarter to simply nudge us in the right direction.
This is particularly pertinent in a society where every move of those in authority is viewed with suspicion, especially when the move appears on the surface to be beneficial to the public. Subtle and not so subtle manipulation of the people for selfish interests over the years has made us all cynical. The average man believes the primary goal of anyone lucky enough to find himself in public office is to serve his interest fully as such an opportunity may only present itself once in a lifetime.
Only when he has gorged himself to the point of vomiting will he then turn his attention to the public’s interest. By cleverly utilising a harmless looking nudge, we’re far more likely to “comply” with a smile on our face – proud of ourselves that we did the right thing on our own volition. .
A strategy Lee Kuan Yew learned to use. Nudge enough people in the right direction; once you have a critical mass, you can then enact a law to whip the recalcitrant few into line. To this end, no one will bat an eyelid. It makes for a happier and more peaceful society when people feel pleased with themselves for “voluntarily” doing the right thing than when there’s a pervasive atmosphere of coercion. The long term results are often poles apart.
I recall my secondary school days in Oxfordshire where there was a boy who just refused to behave – he wasn’t a bad person – but he just didn’t see the need to behave responsibly. Okay, I’ll admit here that we were a unique group of boys in that class. We had such a penchant to be naughty. The teachers loved us for our prodigious talent in diverse fields and for our unmistakable self-assurance. But we were so naughty that the headmaster instructed us not to sit with other students during meal times “so not to contaminate others”. And yes, though I later became a Prefect, I was still one of the naughty ones. I won’t lie.
Anyway, George Howarth, just defied all attempts by the teachers to crack. Thinking of new punishments had become a headache and a punishment for the teachers themselves. The punisher had become the punishee as the intended target appeared not to feel a thing. So the teachers came up with a strategy. They made him the class captain. A masterstroke.
A responsibility, a sense of ownership and a boost to self-esteem succeeded where countless lashes of the cane had failed. He became a different person almost overnight; a model citizen. From that moment on he did all he needed to do to live up to his new responsibilities. He had no intention of letting the teachers down. He had no intention of letting himself down. Which sane man burns his house? ?
Nigerians can be nudged to become more patriotic if given reasons to be so. Treat them well, provide the amenities for which they voted for you , do all to make life meaningful and push for equal distribution of resources, make them feel they matter. , These will work wonders where force has failed.
You cannot compel people to love their country enough to safeguard its collective interest. To do that, they must see it as their duty and obligation to do so. A sense of ownership in the Nigerian project must be evoked within them otherwise selfish interest will continue to have the day. You must get them to the point where they regard letting their country down as letting themselves down.
By putting adequate infrastructure in place and implementing much needed social reforms, Nigerians can be nudged into pay their taxes. Providing the right facilities (accompanied by a good media campaign), they’re more likely to place a premium on keeping their environment clean. Retraining and reforming, making good provision for police welfare, they’re less likely to use the people as their alternative source of income. All of this, and more, will propel an average Nigerian to treat his country with dignity and respect.
Following revelations of Nigerians in the US arrested by the FBI for advance fee fraud and cybercrime has got people to speak up more about the desperate need to rediscover or perhaps upgrade our value system.
When I read on social media the comments of some of our youths who try to equate obvious criminal activity to entrepreneurship, it sickens and saddens me deeply. “It’s their hustle” they say. Such shameless support of crime is reflective of just far we’ve sunk as a society.
But then, have ruling political parties in the last 20 years not made it the norm to treat financial crime perpetrated by their members as a “family affair”? The common man simply follows their lead that crime pays, if you can get away with it.
We need a nudge to be better. Results don’t change until people change.
Changing the nation…one mind at a time.
DAPO AKANDE
