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By Nick Chater

By George Loewenstein

On Sale: Jan 27, 2026
Page Count: 368 pages
Publisher: Basic Venture
ISBN-13: 9781541700116

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Regular Price $30.00
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$42.00 CAD

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Two leading behavioral scientists argue we should reject “nudge” policies and stop blaming personal failure for society’s failures

Two decades ago, behavioral economics burst from academia to the halls of power, on both sides of the Atlantic, with the promise that correcting individual biases could help transform society. The hope was that governments could deploy a new approach to addressing society’s deepest challenges, from inadequate retirement planning to climate change—gently, but cleverly, nudging people to make choices for their own good and the good of the planet.

It was all very convenient, and false. As behavioral scientists Nick Chater and George Loewenstein show in It’s on You, nudges rarely work, and divert us from policies that do. For example, being nudged to switch to green energy doesn’t cut carbon, and it distracts from the real challenge of building a low-carbon economy.

It’s on You shows how the rich and powerful have repeatedly used a clever sleight of hand: blaming individuals for social problems, with behavioral economics an unwitting accomplice, while lobbying against the systemic changes that could actually help. Rather than trying to “fix” the victims of bad policies, real progress requires rewriting the social and economic rulebook for the common good.

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"A wise and deeply-researched book and a stirring call to action. It is rare to see such expert thinkers reflect so profoundly on the risks of their own field."
Tim Harford, author of The Data Detective

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Nick Chater

About the Author

Nick Chater is a professor of behavioral science at the Warwick Business School. George Loewenstein is the Herbert A. Simon University Professor of Economics and Psychology at Carnegie Mellon University. Both have written and edited a number of books in their respective fields. Chater resides in Oxford, UK, and Loewenstein resides in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

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