01 Mar Behavioral Science is Nonpartisan
When political partisans use behavioral nudges in public policy, their opponents question the science. Vigorously. In the UK, when conservative Prime Minister David Cameron applied behavioral insights to policy, the left was suspicious. In the US, when President Obama did the same thing, the right was skeptical. Probably both sides suspected the policies being promoted; but it was the ethics of using behavioral policy interventions that they expressed concern about.
In a hyper-partisan era, are there any situations in which people from both sides would find policy nudges acceptable? This Harvard study explored people’s attitudes toward the application of behavioral insights to public policy. It found, not surprisingly, support for nudges that accorded with a person’s politics, and opposition to nudges at odds with a person’s politics. When the nudges had no partisan cues, the partisan attitudes disappeared.
The tribal tendencies of left and right are hard to overcome; and the administration or public servant forwarding a policy is, admittedly, a partisan cue impossible to strip from the policy. Even so, nudges belong in the policy toolbox.
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