Nudging his way to a Nobel Prize

For nearly 5 years ArcheMedX has been working to “nudge” learners to learn more effectively. The simple idea is that learners rely on a largely unevolved set of learning actions, or behaviors, and that by architecting learning experiences that optimize these behaviors, learners learn better. We validated this approach years ago, demonstrating that nudging learners within the ArcheViewer leads to learning experiences that are 4-6 times more effective!

Yesterday morning (October 9th, 2017) I awoke to the news that Rich Thaler, the pioneering behavioral economist and the man whose research serves as the foundation of Nudge Science was awarded the Nobel Prize in Economics. 

From the Team at ArcheMedX, we would like to share the heartiest of congratulations for this recognition!!

For those unfamiliar with Nudge Science, it is grounded in the awareness that humans struggle balancing long-term and short-term benefits, that we struggle to balance fear of loss with joy of gains, that we believe in hindsight though evidence demonstrates it is rarely 20/20. In short, Nudge Science tells us that humans are irrational and often fail to make the decisions that are empirically in our best interest….time after time after time.

Thaler’s work provides us practical guidance for addressing and overcoming these short-comings. To learn how we, at ArcheMedX, have been evolving this science and connecting Rich’s work to learning science, check out some of the posts we have shared:

• March 2017: Irrationality – undermining learning for millennia
• December 2016: 2016 Taught Us That Learning IS A Behavior
• July 2016: Can ‘Nudges’ Transform Learning and Behavior Change?
• October 2015: Getting Started with Nudges and Choice Architecture
• July 2014: Metacognition, ‘nudges’, and adult education
• May 2013: Nudging learners to effectively learn

To learn much more about Thaler’s recognition and the 2017 Nobel prize, here is just a small snapshot of yesterday’s media coverage:

• Wall Street Journal: Nobel Prize in Economics Awarded to American Richard Thaler
• New York Times: Nobel in Economics Is Awarded to Richard Thaler
• The Guardian: Richard Thaler wins 2017 Nobel prize in economics – as it happened
• Nobel Prize Announcement: Press Release: The Prize in Economic Sciences 2017