The nudge theory: Dirksen makes a good point

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Julie Dirksen's description of the nudge theory, and how to use it to improve instructional design, has some interesting roots.

Let me start by saying this: all communication is about manipulation. You want people to hear your message and act on it in certain ways.

While no form of communication is perfect in every situation, there are some that generally do a better job of this than others.

Take advertising, for example.

In the late 1950s and throughout the 1960s, Bayer Pharmaceuticals began noticing a lag in its sales of aspirin. So they took advantage of what is often called the Golden Age of Advertising to push the product to the forefront of consumer consciousness.

A two-step, heavyweight marketing campaign was developed.

First, the company had to persuade consumers to recognize and name their headaches and other pains.

Then, having sold them on the idea of the pain, Bayer delivered the solution, in the form of little white pills with a t-shaped mark on them, sold in glass bottles.

In other words, they started by creating the headache - or more accurately, awareness of the headache - then offering a remedy.

It’s a simple formula that has proven remarkably effective and durable over the years.

Today, all advertising uses the nudge theory - that you will be happier, more successful and more popular if you do what your friends are doing.

That’s why you always see groups of people enjoying the soft drinks, rather than just a solitary individual. It’s success by association.

When it comes to instructional design, Dirksen makes a really good point: that we have to design for the way people think. Risks and rewards - also known as incentives and disincentives - play a major role.

As with advertising, Dirksen points out, people are more likely to retain what they’ve learned if they can see how it applies to them - what they’ll get out of it.

While there’s also something to be said for learning for its own sake, this concept is really more evolutionary than revolutionary.