(Behavioural Economics cont. 5)

Choice Architect

This role is responsible for organising the context in which people make decisions, eg

    - voting ballot papers (the order to which names appear the voting paper)

    - health professionals (prescribing alternative treatments to patients)

    - educationalists (describing possible educational opportunities for students)

    - environmentalists (encouraging organisations to reduce their damage of the environment), etc

Choice architects
"...are not merely trying to track or implement people's anticipated choices. Rather, they are self-consciously attempting to move people in directions that will make their lives better......in many cases it is easy to do so..."
Richard Thaler et al, 2021

Need to create a user-friendly environment.
"...as choices become more numerous and/or vary on more dimensions, people are more likely to adopt simplifying strategies..."
Richard Thaler et al, 2021

This can involve prioritising important criteria to help with the selection; another way is mapping, ie simplifying abstract concepts into understandable ones, byusing visual displays, labeling, etc.

Sometimes
"...the concepts involved are so abstract and inscrutable to most of us. Numbering, imagery and product comparison help to translate and demystify the larger issues..."
Richard Thaler et al, 2021

As many products and services have complex pricing schemes that are neither transparent nor comprehensible to consumers, like mortgages, cell phone plans, insurance policies (car, house, travel, etc), there is a need for specialists (choice architect) to help the consumer. This is called collaborative filtering (you use the judgement of other people who have similar tastes to filter through vast numbers of products, like books, movies, etc in order to increase the likelihood of picking one you like; it is about making difficult choices easier)