Episode 4: Behavioral Insights into Law with David Tannenbaum

Where law seeks to influence human behavior by setting obligations, legal design aims to make those obligations easier to understand and follow by using human centric design methods. Sometimes these methods can encompass behaviorally informed "nudges". In behavioral economics nudges are defined as any kind of interventions in the physical or social environment that alters people's behavior in a predictable way without forbidding any options or significantly changing their economic incentives. So to say, nudges make certain decisions easier, yet without limiting one's freedom of choice. A fitness app nudges with activity notifications, so does a car navigator showing the best route options. Nudging, however, also has a reputation of being a psychological trick used in product marketing: those chocolate bars placed next to a cash register at your grocery store aren't there just by random. But should legal products such as contracts and court documents use nudging too? Or do they nudge already?   In this episode Nina and Henna talk about nudging and its possibilities and pitfalls in legal design with David Tannenbaum, a researcher of decision making and an Assistant Professor in the Department of Management at the University of Utah’s Eccles School of Business.