Nudge for Good
Find a route, hop on your bike, enjoy the ride, and start a streak — or maintain the one you already have.
Streaks are common in apps because they tap into a psychological bias known as “loss aversion.” It’s fun to start a streak and once you’ve built one up, you don’t want to lose it.
This kind of design is known as a “nudge,” after a book by the same name by the Nobel Prize winning economist Richard Thaler. It’s a mind-expanding book and a must-read on behavioral psychology and how people make decisions.
Thaler, whose class Avi took at the University of Chicago, memorably inscribed copies of the book with this iconic admonition:
“Nudge for good.” - Richard Thaler
Yet it might be one of the most important bits of wisdom that has been willfully ignored by the technology industry. Most of the time, technology companies “Nudge for bad.”
Social media apps like Snapchat use streaks to keep you engaged. But to what end? Simply to give them more of your time and personal data.
Tristan Harris, founder of the Center for Humane Technology and the voice of wisdom in “The Social Dilemma,” argues that technology is at its best when it helps people live the best versions of their lives — to meet new friends (Meetup), go to cool places (AllTrails), and be active more frequently (Bike Streets).
“We need technology that empowers us to make the life choices we want to make.” – Tristan Harris
Fitness and activity apps “nudge for good” and try to help you achieve your health goals. These apps help people overcome another cognitive bias known as the “value-action gap.” People value fitness, health, and activity and want to ride their bikes more, but often have difficulty turning that stated desire into action.
In stark contrast, apps that drag people down an addictive dopamine vortex under the false pretense that they’re “free” and just try to steal more of your time – as if it were an extractable resource like oil or lithium – are nudging for bad.
We’re trying to keep your feet on your pedals, not your eyeballs on our app. If we helped you get on your bike this week, the app was useful. Ad-based apps, by contrast, keep making money as they manipulate you to part ways with more and more of your time. So they use cheap tricks to keep you scrolling forever.
The app stores label apps like Bike Streets with “in-app purchases,” as if charging for a product deserves a Surgeon General-style warning.
Why aren’t apps like TikTok, Snapchat, Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube presented in app stores with a blaring warning that “You pay for this product with your time”?
If you nudge for bad, it should be on display for everyone to see.