Nudging is a method to change people’s behavior in order to improve their health and wellbeing by gently helping people make better choices. People often make decisions that are not good for their health and nudging rearranges the social and physical environment in order to make people change behavior so their lives are easier, better, and longer.
There are many ways or methods of nudging. Options may be presented so the healthy option is the default option and the unhealthy choice is a decision that needs to be actively made or the environment may be changed to encourage healthy behavior. Any intervention that alters people’s behavior in a predictable way without forbidding any options or significantly changing their economic incentives could be called a nudge e.g. Putting the fruit at eye level in a supermarket describes a nudging intervention but banning junk food is not nudging.
Thaler, Richard & Sunstein, C.. (2009). Nudge: Improving Decisions About Health, Wealth, and Happiness.
Vallgårda S. Nudge: a new and better way to improve health? Health Policy, 104 (2012), pp. 200-203,