The nudge theory: manipulation and environmental campaigning for change

Here is yet another form of ‘manipulation’ that public relations tend to use, the nudge theory. Unlike propaganda and other forms of thought manipulation, the nudge theory may actually open the door to rethink how, and why human beings dislike the notion of manipulation itself. Is being manipulated always evil? Is it something that should be banned from society? Or should we see how we tend to accept some sorts of manipulations when they do not bruise our egos by being revealed?

If we think about what could come to mind as a counterexample of manipulation to some, we could think of the president of United States. Mr Trump counts on the fact that a part of the American population is convinced that talking frankly for a politician, means that he is leaving aside any kind of manipulation. Most of Trump’s voters admitted to liking the character because they feel he addresses problems the population faces directly, without ‘sugarcoating’ things. This ‘truth aura’ feeling that surrounds the current president extended to what he decided to dismiss as fake news and corruption. Indeed, what Mr Trumps calls out, many of his voters will take for legitimate accusations.

In the end, Mr Trump seems to act more like a ‘spin-doctor’ regarding the credibility of media and the government, than public relations practitioners themselves.

Like any form of manipulation, ethics should be implemented. An agency worked with Unilever brands like Magnum and Comfort. They asked people participating in a brand competition and compared the results with webpages that pre-ticked, therefore suggested that people share the competition with their social media, and webpages that left the box blank leaving it to the people to decide if they wanted to share this or not. The first experiment worked brilliantly and got Unilever to save paid advertising money to promote the competition (Benady, 2014). This type of experiment could be considered like an unethical use of the nudge theory.

However, manipulation may happen to be positive. The nudge theory is for instance about encouraging a change by the means of positive suggestion, reinforcement. It is about ‘sugarcoating’ an option that usually actually leads to better and positive outcomes. This theory applied to public relations can have an effect on environmental campaigning for instance, and is often used for environmental outcomes.

Environmental campaigns can be difficult to lead to actual changes in the general population habits. Framing revealed to be effective when used by international campaigns to change a message about food habits and to fight malnutrition. Instead of trying to limit how much proteins and fast food the general population consumes, governmental campaigns started to use the “5 a day” slogan (Thaler & Sunstein, 2008).

I think modern public relations are finding ways to become more ethical and subtler. This combination seems to be very important and can lead to great environment changes. I first started to be highly aware of vegetarianism when I stumbled upon videos showing the abuse on animal treatment and meat production. But it was when I really heard of positive messages with the right influencers who were able to bring vegetarianism down to my level, that I took my first steps in changing my diet. I owe the nudge theory my current diet, which I am proud to have achieved.

 References
Benady, D. (2014, September 30). WTF: A nudge in the right direction. Retrieved March 24, 2017, from PR Week: http://www.prweek.com/article/1314980/wtf-nudge-right-direction

Thaler, R., & Sunstein, C. (2008). Nudge, Improving decisions about health, wealth and happiness.