Welfare Improvement through Nudging Knowledge (WINK)

The WINK project is a joint project of Utrecht University and Wageningen University and it investigates the merits of nudging as a promising and innovative approach to public health and welfare.

Nudging translates insights from behavioral research on decision-making to policy-relevant individual choices in order to gently suggest desired choices without infringing upon autonomy of individuals. It is based on the understanding that individual choices are generally driven by heuristic processes to which the presentation of alternatives can be attuned.

Nudging refers to a variety of techniques with which governments and other agents (choice architects) may guide individual choices in order to improve decision outcomes. Nudging is based on libertarian paternalism, which respects individual free choice (libertarian) but suggest the most sensible choices to individuals (paternalistic).

The program focuses on public health and healthy lifestyle choices. Nudging is a highly promising alternative to existing policies, as it may be more effective, less intrusive and less costly. However, systematic research is lacking that investigates the effectiveness of various nudges, their normative acceptability and practical feasibility for public policies. This research program is a systematic empirical investigation of these three issues by a multidisciplinary research team, featuring psychologists and communication, ethics and public administration scholars.

We will collaborate in a consortium with six of the most important policy actors in the field of public policy, public health and welfare: Netherlands School for Public Policy, Council for Social Development, Netherlands Centre for Ethics and Health, National Institute for Public Health and the Environment, Netherlands Scientific Council for Government Policy, and Municipal Public Health Service Utrecht.