The Ethics of Influence
Government in the Age of Behavioral Science

In The Ethics of Influence, Cass R. Sunstein investigates the ethical issues surrounding government nudges, choice architecture, and mandates.

Cass R. Sunstein (Author)

9781107140707, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 24 August 2016

234 pages
23.7 x 16 x 1.8 cm, 0.47 kg

'The first instinct when considering a nudge is whether it will work - how effective it will be. But Sunstein adds a new dimension: Is it moral or unduly manipulative?' Harvey Schachter, Vanguard

In recent years, 'nudge units' or 'behavioral insights teams' have been created in the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany, and other nations. All over the world, public officials are using the behavioral sciences to protect the environment, promote employment and economic growth, reduce poverty, and increase national security. In this book, Cass R. Sunstein, the eminent legal scholar and best-selling co-author of Nudge (2008), breaks new ground with a deep yet highly readable investigation into the ethical issues surrounding nudges, choice architecture, and mandates, addressing such issues as welfare, autonomy, self-government, dignity, manipulation, and the constraints and responsibilities of an ethical state. Complementing the ethical discussion, The Ethics of Influence: Government in the Age of Behavioral Science contains a wealth of new data on people's attitudes towards a broad range of nudges, choice architecture, and mandates.

1. The age of behavioral science
2. Choice and its architecture
3. 'As judged by themselves'
4. Values
5. Fifty shades of manipulation
6. Do people like nudges? Empirical findings
7. Green by default? Ethical challenges for environmental protection
8. Mandates - a very brief recapitulation
Appendix A. American attitudes toward thirty-four nudges
Appendix B. Survey questions
Appendix C. Executive Order 13707: using behavioral science insights to better serve the American people
Acknowledgements.

Subject Areas: Constitutional & administrative law [LND], Behavioural economics [KCK], Economics [KC], Ethics & moral philosophy [HPQ]