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In the face of growing global challenges such as climate change, pandemics, and threats to democratic values, traditional behavioral policy approaches are increasingly coming into question. The once-dominant nudging approach, which seeks to "nudge" people toward better decisions, has been criticized for, among other things, not sufficiently promoting individual autonomy. In response, boosts are gaining importance. These interventions are designed to enhance individuals' decision-making and self-control skills, as scientists from the Max Planck Institute for Human Development explain in the Annual Review of Psychology—one of psychology’s most cited journals.
Unlike nudging, boosting is based on the empirically supported premise that people are capable of making much better decisions than is often assumed. Rather than simply steering behavior, boosting empowers people by fostering their self-control and decision-making skills in an increasingly complex world. “The challenges we face today require more than subtle nudges. Boosting is about empowering people to take control of their lives and make decisions that are beneficial for themselves and for society,” says Stefan Herzog, Senior Researcher at the Center for Adaptive Rationality at the Max Planck Institute for Human Development. Together with director Ralph Hertwig, he has written a freely available review article on boosting that shows why the goals of empowerment, activation, and maturity are so urgent in policy efforts to control behavior (see also scienceofboosting.org for additional examples of boosts).
The researchers argue that we live in a highly commercialized and often manipulative environment that, from fast food to social media, is designed to exploit and influence human behavior – often to the benefit of commercial interests and to the detriment of both individual and common good. This is where nudging reaches its limits: It often does not provide a lasting or robust resistance to such influences. “Our consumer environment is designed to exploit our natural tendencies,” explains Stefan Herzog. “Boosting is essential because it helps people develop the skills to navigate and resist these manipulative forces.”
Boosting focuses on developing the basic skills needed in today's highly engineered world. Examples include teaching basic statistics, which helps people better understand probabilities, or lateral reading, a fact-checking technique that assesses the credibility of online information by analyzing sources. A simple and effective way to combine boosting and nudging is through self-nudging. Self-nudges are when people change their environment to make it easier for them to achieve their goals. For example, they can improve their self-control in the face of unhealthy foods by learning to consciously place tempting snacks out of reach.
Although boosting offers clear benefits, the authors emphasize that it should be embedded in a comprehensive policy mix. Systemic changes, such as incentives and regulations, are all needed to address the complex challenges of highly engineered environments. However, these systemic changes are often slow or controversial. It is therefore important to equip people with the skills to protect their autonomy in the meantime.
The researchers also emphasize that empowerment must be implemented carefully. Policymakers should be careful not to shift responsibility from commercial actors to individuals. For example, people from lower socio-economic backgrounds often have fewer resources to engage with more time-consuming and effortful boosts, which risks exacerbating existing inequalities. “Boosting must be applicable and fair to all,” says Ralph Hertwig, director at the Max Planck Institute for Human Development. “Our goal should be to give all citizens the opportunity to develop the skills they need to succeed in today's world. And boosting aims to support active decision-making and autonomous action, because both are essential for our well-being, life satisfaction and health.”
Key points:
- The article highlights untapped potential of behavioral science to inform public policy in an increasingly complex world.
- While nudging is increasingly criticized for not sufficiently promoting individual autonomy, boosting aims to empower people in a complex world by strengthening their decision-making and self-control skills.
- To overcome the complex challenges of our time, we need a comprehensive policy mix that relies on systemic changes, such as incentives and regulations, in addition to behavioural policy approaches such as boosting.
Herzog, S. M., & Hertwig, R. (2025). Boosting: Empowering citizens with behavioral science. Annual Review of Psychology, 76, 851–881. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-psych-020924-124753
https://www.mpib-berlin.mpg.de/press-releases/boosting Press release on the MPIB website
https://scienceofboosting.org/ "Science of boosting" website
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