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