Last month, Washington State implemented the Plastic
Bag Ban which prohibits single-use bags and charges a fee for bags if you fail
to bring your own. During the pandemic, when bringing your own bag into the
store was prohibited, I got lazy. But the prospect of paying 8 cents per bag
was enough of an incentive for me to start bringing my own bags into stores
again. Am I just cheap or is this a case for behavioral economics? I started
with this
list to try and find some answers.
I ended up with Nudge: Improving Decisions About
Health, Wealth, and Happiness by Richard H. Thaler and Cass R. Sunstein mainly
because my library app had it available. It turned out to be a good pick.
As with any book of this genre, I’m most taken with
the real-world examples. I was fascinated by the choice architects chapter
which focuses on how design meshes or messes with our human tendencies in
decision making. Ever pull on a door that opens out? Ever turn on the wrong
burner on your stove? I’m also amazed at how simple changes in things like metro maps
or boarding
passes can make big differences in efficiency and outcome. The authors also
bring up our tendency to make big decisions through elimination by aspects. I
recently saw this at play when I, I mean, my daughter was curating her college
list.
Ultimately, I’m not sure how legislators decided on 8
cents as a tipping point. But for me, it was the nudge I needed.
