title: Making Healthy Choices Easier: Regulation versus Nudging.
abstract: In recent years, the nudge approach to behavior change has emerged from the behavioral sciences to challenge the traditional use of regulation in public health strategies to address modifiable individual-level behaviors related to the rise of noncommunicable diseases and their treatment. However, integration and testing of the nudge approach as part of more comprehensive public health strategies aimed at making healthy choices easier are being threatened by inadequate understandings of its scientific character, its relationship with regulation, and its ethical implications. This article reviews this character and its ethical implication with a special emphasis on the compatibility of nudging with traditional regulation, special domains of experience, and the need for a more nuanced approach to the ethical debate. The aim is to advance readers' understanding and give guidance to those who have considered working with or incorporating the nudge approach into programs or policies aimed at making healthful choices easier.
authors.affiliation: Communication, Business and Information Technology.|Center for Science, Society and Policy, Roskilde University, 4000 Roskilde, Denmark; email: pgh@ruc.dk.
authors.forename: Pelle Guldborg
authors.initials: PG
authors.lastname: Hansen
authors.affiliation: Department of Development and Planning, Aalborg University, 9100 Aalborg, Denmark; email: lrs@plan.aau.dk.
authors.forename: Laurits Rohden
authors.initials: LR
authors.lastname: Skov
authors.affiliation: Danish Nudging Network, 1208 København K, Denmark; email: katrine@inudgeyou.com.
authors.forename: Katrine Lund
authors.initials: KL
authors.lastname: Skov
mesh_terms: D002755:Choice Behavior; D003657:Decision Making; D004032:Diet / Q000523:psychology; D015444:Exercise / Q000523:psychology; D033161:Government Regulation; D015438:Health Behavior; D006293:Health Promotion / Q000941:ethics / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence* / Q000379:methods*; D006801:Humans; D008960:Models, Psychological; D009042:Motivation; D011634:Public Health; D009927:Tissue and Organ Procurement
keywords: libertarian paternalism; nudge; policy; public health