Fly in the Urinal- Choice Architecture for Vocational Education

The folks at the Amsterdam airport had a problem in their hand to keep the airport toilets clean. Often men using the toilets made the floor dirty by peeing all over the place. Not aiming in the right direction was the probable cause. What was the solution? One obvious and direct approach would be to post a message asking men to keep the washroom clean. But what they did was something unusual. They etched a picture of a fly in the urinal and surprise of surprises men started aiming at the fly and no more the floor was dirty. The cleaning bill went down by 80%. This is a classic “nudge” theory in real-life application. Behavior modification happens when men have something to ‘aim at’ and in this case, it happens to be the fly. The principle of nudging has its root in Behavioral Economics and it has great relevance to the system of delivering vocational education as it is practiced all over. Instead of a direct message- which is often the way education is delivered if we nudge the youth in an indirect manner it is more likely to be internalized. The principle underlying the way we act and behave depends on what is now known as the dual thought process theory. We normally operate from two mindsets. The first one is fast, automatic and emotional almost like a reflex action and the second one is slow, deliberate and logical. A writer has compared the first to the famous bumbling Homer Simpson and the second one to the equally famous Spock of Star Trek. Now the point here is that we meet more Simpsons in the world than the Spocks. That means that our strategy for modifying the behaviour pattern has to take into account nudging rather than direct coaching. It all revolves around the choice of architecture. Our training is often very direct and forced. Can we make it indirect and with a gentle nudge? Let me give more everyday examples to stress this point. In India, we have this tendency to throw garbage outside the house. The assumption is that if it is outside my house I am ok. One approach would be to levy fines on littering and posting messages that littering is prohibited. Now if we supply the garbage bag with the name of the house owner written on it what would happen? I am sure suddenly people would become responsible and take the bag to the bin. The second example would be eating more than necessary. If people are not conscious of how much they are eating if we replace the big plate with a smaller one automatically they would eat less. The third example would be of a small child who messes up their room with all the playthings spread all over. One direct way would be to reprimand the child and ‘order’ him to tidy his room. We all know that this will be met with stiff resistance or a cry. Instead, if we play the tidy game with the child am sure he will enjoy and actively participate in cleaning the room. The Montessori system has understood this principle very well.
Nudge theory is mainly concerned with the design architecture of choices, which influences the decisions we make. Nudge theory proposes that the designing of choices should be based on how people actually think and decide (instinctively and rather irrationally), rather than how leaders and authorities traditionally (and typically incorrectly) believe people think and decide (logically and rationally). It is a fact that our education delivery system is very direct and prescriptive. We need it to be made more nudging and indirect. The following table illustrates the difference between the ‘traditional and direct’ approach vs. the ‘nudge’ approach.

Direct Approach                                            Nudge Approach
Direct                                                               Indirect and Subtle
Prescriptive                                                      Nurturing
Rules, Orders, Judgements                             Enablement and Facilitation
Enforcement                                                    Collaboration and facilitation
Argument                                                        Indicate socially accepted norms
Non-compliance Penalties                              Self-discovery
Binary Choices                                               Exploration of alternatives

I think we need to seriously examine our education delivery architecture and make changes that are more likely to result in real learning and behaviour modification. The present methods have outlived their usefulness.