Is nudging good for you?

It's an idea that features strongly amongst policymakers in the UK and the US at the moment ... but can it really work for population health? Theresa Marteau and others, in a review and analysis of the literature in the BMJ, suggests that the evidence isn't great. While welcoming the debate that Nudge and other books have stimulated, the article observes that nudging towards healthier options fails to compete with the level of nudging in the opposite direction. Nudging works, but regulation works better. The Government thinks differently, as the report from its Behavioural Insights Team shows.
Elsewhere, a report from Ipsos Social Research Institute suggests that most people are willing to accept a level of nudging towards healthy living from government. And a review of Nudge by Thaler and Sunstein in the HSJ suggests it is an approach that can work for commissioning management. If the book has captured your imagination, you may also be interested in its accompanying blog. Also worth checking are presentations from the King's Fund event, Nudging Improvements in Public Health, the last in its Big Society series.