You may have noticed that I’ve recently been fascinated by everything cognitive bias. With the release of Nudge—a book looking at how politicians around the world are using cognitive bias—the general public are now going to be hearing about it a lot more too.
The Times has a nice case-study where the theories are used to guide the public on the issue of environmentalism and ‘going green’. This quote sums up what I believe are many of the public’s thoughts on the many ongoing green campaigns:
Like millions of others, Heath had found that simply being told she ought to save energy had little effect on her habits – and she actively resents the idea of being punished for disobeying government diktats on environmentalism. Drive a big car? You’re bad – pay a penalty.
via Mind Hacks