Richard Thaler

Richard Thaler is Professor of Behavioral Science and Economics at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business. His research covers behavioral economics, finance and the psychology of decision-making. He is well known for co-authoring, with Cass Sunstein, the book Nudge: Improving Decisions About Health, Wealth, and Happiness.

His talk Nudge shares its title with the book and is filed under behavioral economics, the study of how real people make decisions, which often differs from what classic economic models predict. For designers, nudging is closely tied to choices such as default settings and framing, which shape behavior without removing options.