Choice Architecture
What is Choice Architecture?
Choice architecture refers to the deliberate crafting of decision-making environments. By subtly shaping how options are presented, choice architecture influences individual decision-making, often without their explicit awareness.
The Basic Idea
Before heading to the grocery store, you make a list of the items you need. Eggs, milk, and bread. “I won’t buy anything other than these,” you tell yourself. As you wander down the aisles of the store, a large sale sign catches your eye: there’s a shelf of all your favorite snacks, labelled “2 for $8”. “What a steal!” you think to yourself, grabbing four packages without realizing that the original price was $3.99 per item. Once you get home, you realize you spent more than you intended and wonder how this happened yet again. Would you have bought the items if you realized you were saving $0.02?
This is an example of choice architecture, which means that our decisions are influenced by the way that choices are presented.1 To this end, a choice architect is someone who creates the environment that influences decision-making. In the situation above, consumer decisions are influenced by directing their attention to a sale, which we associate with being good, by default. Choice architecture is related to libertarian paternalism and nudge theory, which proposes that positive reinforcement and implicit suggestions can influence behavior.2 However, choice architecture is not always used to benefit those making decisions.1
The first misconception is that it is possible to avoid influencing people’s choices.
– Richard Thaler, Nobel Prize winning behavioral economist for his nudge theory
About the Authors
Dan Pilat
Dan is a Co-Founder and Managing Director at The Decision Lab. He is a bestselling author of Intention - a book he wrote with Wiley on the mindful application of behavioral science in organizations. Dan has a background in organizational decision making, with a BComm in Decision & Information Systems from McGill University. He has worked on enterprise-level behavioral architecture at TD Securities and BMO Capital Markets, where he advised management on the implementation of systems processing billions of dollars per week. Driven by an appetite for the latest in technology, Dan created a course on business intelligence and lectured at McGill University, and has applied behavioral science to topics such as augmented and virtual reality.
Dr. Sekoul Krastev
Sekoul is a Co-Founder and Managing Director at The Decision Lab. He is a bestselling author of Intention - a book he wrote with Wiley on the mindful application of behavioral science in organizations. A decision scientist with a PhD in Decision Neuroscience from McGill University, Sekoul's work has been featured in peer-reviewed journals and has been presented at conferences around the world. Sekoul previously advised management on innovation and engagement strategy at The Boston Consulting Group as well as on online media strategy at Google. He has a deep interest in the applications of behavioral science to new technology and has published on these topics in places such as the Huffington Post and Strategy & Business.
