Giving Compass' Take:

• "Nudge theory" speculates that small, incremental choices can help achieve more substantial social benefits, and educators are utilizing this behavioral theory to increase enrollment at schools. 

• In what ways can schools use nudge theory besides enrollment purposes? 

• Read about the nudge-type interventions used to advance public policy. 

In 2015, administrators at Georgia State University turned to behavioral economics to solve an enrollment problem. The school, renowned for its success in graduating low-income and minority students, wanted to reduce the growing proportion of its freshman class that didn’t make it to campus. Often stumbling through a byzantine enrollment process without assistance, almost 19 percent of admitted freshmen never matriculated.

Thaler’s contributions have built a bridge between the economic and psychological analyses of individual decision-making.

A “nudge” is a small, cheap intervention that alters a consumer’s choice. Nudge theory, as it is known, is largely the product of the economist Richard Thaler, who won the Nobel Prize in economics.

Nudges are meant to achieve socially beneficial ends. Subjects would easily be able to opt out — but if no actions were taken, their choices would be pushed in a useful direction with minimal outside interference.

In the hopes of prodding more students to continue on to post-secondary education, some states aren’t stopping with direct outreach and assistance. Idaho has killed the application altogether for in-state students at its public universities, automatically enrolling every graduating senior in either a two- or four-year program.

Read the full article about nudge theory by Kevin Mahnken at The 74