Seoul aims to use 'nudge' theory to spur economy
The piano stairs at Euljiro 1-ga Metro Station in Seoul.
By Ko Dong-hwan
Stairways at Euljiro 1-ga Metro Station in Seoul make the sound of a piano when people walk on them. Some passers-by, mesmerized, are intrigued to create the sound themselves and ditch the escalators ― not knowing that the idea is to encourage exercise.
There are yellow footprint-shaped images painted a meter from roads near 903 elementary schools in southern Gyeonggi Province. The footprints encourage schoolchildren to stop and look before they cross. The idea is to reduce accidents. Gyeonggi Nambu Provincial Police Agency designed the images and they were put into practice in March 2016. Over a year, accidents in the school zones dropped 21 percent.
The yellow footprints at a road near a school in the city of Yongin, Gyeonggi Province, encourage children to wait and look before crossing.
These are so-called “nudge” ideas, also known as “nudge theory” in behavioral science, that propose positive, indirect suggestions to achieve non-forced compliance to influence the motives, incentives and decision making of groups and individuals. They have been effective around the world and the strategy has officially become one of the South Korean government’s new target concepts to boost the economy.
“We will open nudge idea competitions nationwide starting next year,” the Ministry of Strategy and Finance said at the Seoul Government Complex in Gwanghwamun District, Seoul, Wednesday. “The winning ideas will be tested in demonstration projects and, proven effective, will nudge the government to introduce new policies to realize them in practice.”
A urinal with a fly nudges users to aim for the insect.
The ministry said it plans eventually to introduce a bureau dedicated to unearthing, developing and realizing the ideas.
“It is a low-cost, high-efficiency policy that encourages citizens to voluntarily make the right decisions,” the ministry said.
The concept came to prominence in 2008 through American economist and this year’s Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences winner Richard Thaler with his book “Nudge: Improving Decisions About Health, Wealth, and Happiness.”
Nike's bins persuade people to “shoot the trash.”
One example of nudge behavior is in men’s urinals where a housefly image has been printed inside the bowl to encourage users to aim at it. In another, sport brand Nike designed street trash cans attached to basketball backboards to persuade people to use the bins. In South Africa, the government introduced a transparent soap with a toy inside to stimulate use, thus helping prevent cholera and typhoid fever.