A cafeteria tray, a rigged wheel, and the quiet architecture of every choice you make.
Who drives the story
Director of food services for a city school system, quietly experimenting with cafeteria lines. Her rearrangements—fruit at eye level, desserts out of easy reach—swing consumption by up to 25 percent and hand the authors their founding insight.
Your Reflective System, the long-term self who budgets, diets, and promises. It drafts the resolutions that the Doer will break by Tuesday.
Your Automatic System, hungry, instant, and holding the fork. It wins most battles because it shows up first and never gets tired.
A philosophy major, outspoken and concerned with social justice, used as a thought experiment. People judge 'bank teller and active in the feminist movement' more likely than 'bank teller'—a logical impossibility that exposes how our minds stereotype.
The designers of Save More Tomorrow, the program that lets future raises fund future savings. Their trick turns the Doer's laziness into the Planner's victory.
How they are connected
It drafts the resolutions that the Doer will break by Tuesday.
Thaler and Shlomo BenartziThe Planner
Their trick turns the Doer's laziness into the Planner's victory.
Thaler and Shlomo BenartziThe Doer
Their trick turns the Doer's laziness into the Planner's victory.
Go deeper
There is no neutral design · Humans are not Econs · Freedom within gentle steering · The power of the herd and the spotlight
Themes explainedThe full story act by act, the ending explained and a quick quiz.
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