the.com/nudge
A shove so polite it doesn't notice it's bossing you around.
means To push someone gently, usually with an elbow or a hint, toward doing something they weren't quite committed to.
from Origin is genuinely murky — it surfaces in English in the 1600s, possibly related to Scandinavian words for rubbing or pushing (compare Norwegian dialect 'nugga,' to rub or push), but no confirmed lineage connects them. It's one of those stubby, physical-sounding words that seems to act out its own meaning — a small, blunt syllable doing a small, blunt job — without a documented family tree to back it up.
- origin
- coined by Thaler and Sunstein, 2008 book
- core idea
- changes choices without banning any option
- famous example
- flies painted in urinals reduce spillage
- catch
- only works if you don't fight it