Fly in the Urinal- Nudge as a Tool for Behavior Modification in Agriculture

The housekeeping staff 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 pot 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 classic “nudge” theory in real life application. You can find such washrooms at Changi Airport in Singapore. Behavior modification happens when men have something to ‘aim at’ and in this case it happens to be the fly. 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 embedded in the mind. The presentation highlights the relevance of using Nudge as a tool for Behavior modification of small-holder farmers.