Sublime

Good policy uses incentives to channel behavior toward some desired outcome. Bad policy either ignores incentives, or fails to anticipate how rational individuals might change their behavior to avoid being penalized.

Just by how I position the $20, I can make you happy or disgusted by it. I tell you that not to expose our decision making as emotional and irrational. We’ve already seen that. What I am saying is that while our decisions may be largely irrational, that doesn’t mean there aren’t consistent patterns, principles, and rules behind how we act. And once

The freedom to do what one intends, and not to do otherwise, is no less valuable than it ever was.

that cooperation in repeated public goods games can be increased if players are allowed to punish noncooperators at their own expense.

publicity principle.16 In its simplest form, the publicity principle suggests that no choice architect in the public or private sector should adopt a policy that she would not be able or willing to defend publicly.

Algorithms use the judgments of other people who share your tastes to filter through the vast number of books or movies available in order to increase the likelihood of picking one you like.

This relatively benign (and purely fictional) example shows two things: first, it illustrates how stealthily descriptive regularities can become normative. Second, it illustrates that this normativity can go undetected until it’s breached, at which point the question of accountability forces us to make a decision about our commitment or lack thereo

Some economists argue that such highly competitive markets will protect consumers from making poor choices.