Nudge Team

At a government office in the UK, a small tweak in the phrasing of a letter changed everything. Officials were struggling to get people to pay their taxes on time until someone added a simple sentence: “Most people in your town have already paid.” Suddenly, compliance shot up, without needing to introduce any new laws or hefty fines. Just a simple shift in wording was enough to have a huge impact. Behind that quiet revolution was one of the world’s first “nudge units.”

These so-called nudge teams—often known as behavioral insights teams, particularly in the case of the original nudge unit, now referred to as the Behavioral Insights Team (BIT)—are small groups of experts who apply findings from psychology, economics, sociology, and behavioral science to public policy. Instead of relying on top-down mandates, they focus on subtle changes in how choices are presented (nudges) to help people make decisions that are in their own best interest. Want to increase vaccination rates, reduce energy use, or improve job training enrollment? A nudge team might suggest a default setting, a timely reminder, or even a well-placed message at just the right moment.

The term “nudge” comes from the 2008 book Nudge by Richard Thaler and Cass Sunstein, which popularized the idea that behavioral science could be used to design better systems without restricting freedom of choice. Over the last decade, governments around the world have embraced this approach. Nudge units now operate across sectors, testing low-cost interventions with big potential payoffs. But their influence goes beyond clever tweaks: they’ve challenged how policymakers think about human behavior and how governments can help people lead better lives.