Nudging is effective because humans tend to behave irrationally and unmindful in everyday decisions, and often it is just the matter of a slight stimulus to start acting (differently). For example, it is senseful to plan meetings for 40 minutes instead of 60 minutes, as the time is being used more efficiently in a stricter time frame, although the meetings are shorter.

The oldest example of a nudge can be found in a story about the prussian king Frederick the Great. At his time potatoes were not particularly popular, in order to change that, he let his soldiers guard the potato fields. Due to the sudden increase of the potatoes value, it is said that the citizens started being interested in the field crops and consumed them often and with pleasure.

Many nudges are definitely advantageous – actually, many consumers are putting their hopes in such an assistance in order to sustainably change their habits of eating and consuming. However, nudges are not unproblematic from the perspective of the persons affected, as their are often driven by economic interest of the producers or employers. This fact is neither new nor should be judged negatively. The influencing of (potential) customers is as old as the markets themselves. Marketing and Advertisements always seeked to make the own products and services as attractive as possible to the consumers. Using findings of the behavioral psychology is not new as well. The knowledge of nudging is already being used for a long time in commercial fields like user experience design, marketing or the distribution of products and services. But since a few years, this knowledge is used more systematically and comprehensively in the economic world.

At the Nudge Night, interested parties can inform themselves about the topic of decision-making and get to know nudges from various economic dimensions presented by students.

Each Nudge Night has its main theme in terms of content, to which the developed nudges are oriented. Sometimes they are more socio-political topics such as “Sustainable Consumption” and “Education” or company-related topics such as “Innovation Management” and “Customer Experience”.

To get an idea of what nudging exactly means and how it can be used, you will be informed at the beginning through a short introduction about the topic of “Nudging”. This will be followed by a keynote speech held by practitioners from the industrial sector, public organizations or from the service sector. You will have the opportunity to get in touch with the students to ask questions about their innovative projects.

We invite all interested parties to participate. Whether you are an entrepreneur and would like to learn more about the topic for professional purposes or join us as a student – you are very welcome! The participation is free of charge.