The idea is based on the fact that we are more likely to choose certain options depending on how they’re presented. In fact, supermarkets take advantage of this in how they lay out their products to maximise the chances of us buying the premium brands.
The LA Times piece argues that this could be used for government objectives, such as increasing the number of people who take out pensions, while still maintaining the freedom to choose and without using explicit incentives.
…
I’m left wondering whether governments shouldn’t be adopting exactly what the commercial sector have been doing for years, or whether we’re naive to think political choice engineering isn’t being used already.
