Nudge Guy Say Nudges Good, Critics Bad

Have I mentioned I don't like the nudge people?
Ah, I see I have. More below

Cass Sunstein via the Social Science Research Network:

Misconceptions About Nudges 

12 Pages Posted: 9 Sep 2017  

Cass R. Sunstein Harvard Law School; Harvard University - Harvard Kennedy School (HKS)

Date Written: September 6, 2017

Abstract

Some people believe that nudges are an insult to human agency; that nudges are based on excessive trust in government; that nudges are covert; that nudges are manipulative; that nudges exploit behavioral biases; that nudges depend on a belief that human beings are irrational; and that nudges work only at the margins and cannot accomplish much. These are misconceptions. Nudges always respect, and often promote, human agency; because nudges insist on preserving freedom of choice, they do not put excessive trust in government; nudges are generally transparent rather than covert or forms of manipulation; many nudges are educative, and even when they are not, they tend to make life simpler and more navigable; and some nudges have quite large impacts. 

SSRN download page 

Previously on Nudge:
June 2017
"The Limits Of Persuasive Realities: Hacking The Brain Stem With VR Marketing Technologies"
I should probably state my biases right up front, I don't much care for the "nudge' people.

August 2013
"Nudge Squad": White House Creating "Behavioral Insights Team" that Will Look for Ways to Subtly Influence People's Behavior to Get Us to All Act "Better"
Nudge Squad.
Sounds like a '70's chimera: Mod Squad meets Esalen Institute.*

September 2015 
Updated--Cass Sunstein: Score! Presidential Executive Order -- "Using Behavioral Science Insights to Better Serve the American People"

Possibly also of interest:
Nudge This: "The Internet of Things Will Be a Giant Persuasion Machine"
Nudge This: "Yes, You’re Irrational, and Yes, That’s OK"
March 2015
Nudge This: "The Algorithmic Self"

The writer,  Frank Pasquale, is a professor of law at the University of Maryland, and is the author of the forthcoming book The Black Box Society: The Secret Algorithms That Control Money and Information.

And, on the off chance Bloomberg View's Matt Levine should see this, 38 footnotes!
September 2014
Behavior: We Are More Rational Than Those who Try To 'Nudge' Us

I don't care much for manipulators.
For a time however I tried to work the word into every conversation. I knew a finance guy who, for whatever reason, could not say the word, when he tried it came out as 'nipulators.'I loved it when he'd go on a rant about the nipulators and nipulation, I'd egg him on and just melt when he got going.
Good times....

If Interested here are a couple more pieces by Pasquale:
Algorithims Are Judging You

And writing at the Guardian, "Uber and the lawlessness of 'sharing economy' corporates"