A Question for the Nudgers

As we know, Team Dave are fans of Richard Thaler and Cass Sunstein’s Nudge. The authors advocate something called “libertarian paternalism”. Steve Hilton, Cameron’s style guru, is especially enthusiastic about using insights gleaned from behavioural economics to advance “progressive Conservatism”. Here’s one example he cites in a recent strategy memo:

A few years ago, the authorities in Montana managed to cut binge drinking amongst students – something that the Labour Government has tried and failed to do over the past decade. How? They simply put up advertising that stated: ‘80% of Montana college students drink fewer than four beers per week’. This led to an immediate fall in binge drinking because of the power of social norms. As various academic studies have shown, people typically like to feel like they are part of the norm – so as soon as these students were told that binge drinking was abnormal, they changed their behaviour.