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English from the BBC. Hello. This is 6 min English from BBC, learning English.

I'm Neil, and I'm Beth. Have you ever been sent a text reminding

you about a doctor's appointment, or impulsively bought something on the Internet because there was only one left?

If any of these have happened to you, then you've been nudged.

A nudge is a subtle way of altering human behavior.

It's a powerful way for governments, advertisers and social media companies to encourage or nudge people into making choices that benefit themselves and society as a whole.

Imagine the government want people to eat better.

It might encourage supermarkets to put healthy snacks in easy to reach shelves near the checkout and hide the chocolate bars out of sight on the top shelf.

Shoppers are being nudged to eat better.

Well, that's the idea anyway. But often nudging is used less to benefit society and more to make money for big business.

And it happens more often than people realize.

So in this program, will be asking whether the idea behind nudging to influence human behavior for good is still true today.

And as usual, we'll be learning some useful new vocabulary as well.

But 1st, I have a question for you.

Bet Another example of nudging happened in Woolitch, an area of London, which in 2011, had a problem with anti social behavior, and particularly with shop windows being smashed.

The local authority decided to use nudging to fix the problem by painting pictures on the shop windows.

But what did they paint? Was it a cute kittens, b babies, faces?

Or see barking dogs? Ah, I guess barking dogs would keep the window breakers away.

OK, beth, I'll reveal the correct answer later in the program.

Nudging started in 2008 with the publication of a book by Nobel Prize winning economist Professor Richard Taylor.

Professor taylor's ideas about how to gently persuade people into making good decisions became known as nudge theory.

Advertising executive Roary Suveland introduced Nudge theory to his agency, ogully.

Here's Worry explaining more to BBC radio for program analysis.

Let's say you make the profitable option button green and highly attractive, the less profitable option, you make it kind of grey and kind of manty looking.

OK? That would be an example of something which is, you know, a nudge.

Not necessarily used the best interests of the consumer.

Advertisers use colors to nudge customers towards the profitable option, the one which is the most likely to make money.

These appear brightly colored and attractive on the screen, whereas less profitable options are made to look manky, a slang word meaning dirty and unattractive.

Here, nudging isn't being used for the public good.

These dark nudges, also called sludge, make money for a company, but are not always in the best interests of the consumer.

If something is in your best interests, it's the most advantageous and beneficial thing for you to do.

Dark nudges have caused many to question the morality of nudging, including Neil Levi, professor of ethics at Oxford University, speaking here to BBC radio for program analysis.

The big one, the one people have concentrated on, is that it's paternalistic.

That is, that nudge might be in our interests, but we want to make our own decisions.

That's the people worry that nudges infantilize us to undermining our autonomy.

Critics of nudging call it paternalistic, meaning it wants to make decisions for people, rather than letting them take responsibility for themselves.

They also claim nudging in fertilizes people.

It treats them like children, and as a result, people lose autonomy, the ability to make your own decisions about what to do, rather than being told by someone else.

I guess nudging itself is neither good nor bad.

It just depends how you use it.

Well, let's look on the positive side by revealing the answer to your question.

Neil Right. I asked you how authorities in Woolitch in Southeast London nudged antisocial window breakers to behave nicely?

I guessed it was by painting pictures of scary barking dogs on the windows, which was the wrong answer, I'm afraid, beth.

In fact, woolitch Council hired graffiti artists to paint pictures of local babies faces onto the window shutters.

Not even the most hard hearted criminals smashed those windows, and antisocial behavior fell by 18% in one year.

OK,

let's recap the vocabulary we've learned in this program about nudging ways of gently persuading or encouraging someone to take decisions something which is profitable, makes a profit, or is likely to make money.

Monkey is slang for dirty and unattractive.

If something is in your best interests, it's the most advantageous beneficial thing for you to do.

Paternalistic person prefers making decisions for other people rather than letting them take responsibility for their own lives.

To infantilize someone means to treat them as if they were a child.

And finally, autonomy is the ability to make your own decisions about what to do, rather than being told by someone else.

Once again, our 6 min are up.

Remember to join us again next time for more topical discussion and useful vocabulary here at Six Minute English.

Goodbye for now. Goodbye. 6 min English from the BBC.

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