As someone who is very interested in the field of behavioral economics and its applications, I was interested in asking Professor Laibson whether he believed that someone could use behavioral nudging to a point where they could obtain a very high probability of influencing someone’s future behavior – for example, if there was a number of reminders or way of reminding someone to do something at which point 99% of people would do it. If that point, somewhere between absolute free will and determinism were ever possible, what societal and policy implications would it have for predicting human behavior?
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I also find this to be a very interesting application of behavioral economics. As we already know, the social media apps have influenced human behavior by constantly nudging or using notifications to spur activity. It would be interesting if the same applications could be applied to help people with personal finance decisions. Like providing notifications and reminders to save more or invest instead of only spending.