“Nudge” and Peer Pressure

Welcome to Poetry Friday, this week hosted by Carol at Beyond Literacy. Make sure you stop buy and see what poetry she is sharing today. Thank you, Carol for hosting.

Would you like to know more about Poetry Friday? Look HERE.

Laura Shovan’s February Facebook Poetry Project is in full swing and the group, including me, are spending a lot of time writing new poems! The emersion has been lots of fun.

I picked up this book this week, by Richard H. Thaler, an economist, and Cass R. Sunstein, a social scientist. I’m sure many readers here have heard of NUDGE. I’ve been reading the new, and final, edition.

Since women’s rights in Iran have been in the news lately, I’ll mention a study I read of in this book about women’s rights in Saudi Arabia, in a chapter entitled “Following the Herd.”

As many people know, in Saudia Arabia women in the past have been subject to a custom called “guardianship,” where women can work outside the home only if their husbands allow it. I had always assumed that most men in that country supported guardianship. But assumptions can be tested.

A researcher named Leonardo Bursztyn decided to actually study if young husbands in that country supported the guardianship custom.

THE STUDY:

The researchers interviewed a group of young husbands in Saudia Arabia and asked them whether or not it was right for women to participate in the labor force.

He learned that the overwhelming majority of young husbands answered, “yes.”

Then, Bursztyn divided the same group of husbands in half and revealed the results of his study to half of the men.

Four months later, the wives of the men who had received the information about the majority of other men’s beliefs, that it’s OK for women to work, were applying and interviewing for jobs. The men had changed their views after finding out the views of other men.

Here’s the bottom line they discovered about social norms:

” . . . if people wrongly think that most people are committed to a long standing social norm, a small nudge correcting that misperception can inaugurate large-scale change.” (NUDGE P. 82)

In this book, I also I learned that if you want to nudge people to do the right thing, for instance, to vote, or use a towel more than once, or even pay their taxes, it’s helpful to use peer pressure. People will often do things because they know others LIKE THEM are doing it. Here’s a short poem inspired by the possibility of getting more young people to vote.

PEER PRESSURE

If you want teens
to vote,

don’t tell them
about those
who fail to vote.

Don't complain about
all the non-voters. 

Instead,
remind teens
of all those

JUST LIKE THEM

who did vote. 

© Janice Scully 2023

Here’s some facts about youth voting.

I hope this all made sense. Have a great weekend!