Nudging: Should We Be Wary of the Latest Fad in Behavioral Economics?

Treating consumers as the same by stripping them of their unique circumstances and traditions, then proceeding to "nudge" them runs the risk of not only pushing consumers into making decisions that may not be optimal for them but also creating "lock-in" effects that persist into the future when macroeconomic circumstances have changed. Nudging policy-like all top-down policy-is construed as an aggregate applied to its targeted audience. The most reasonably diverse "choice architecture" still underappreciates people's use of local knowledge that is factored into their decision-making.