Choice Architecture

Have you ever gone grocery shopping when you’re hungry? Doesn’t the candy section in the checkout line become just a little more tempting than it normally would be? This is by design. No one is making you buy that chocolate bar, but its placement has an influence on you. 

Choice Architecture is a technique many companies use to guide you towards decision making that is beneficial to them. It isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but it’s good to understand what is happening around you. 

We think of ourselves as having an enormous amount of freedom to choose, and while we do have that freedom, we are under the influence of a lot of choice architecture techniques throughout the day. 

One way to take your freedom back is to choose what influences you. Whose nudges are you going to pay attention to? We can use those nudges to push us towards good habits that lead to the types of success we want for ourselves. 

Be the architect of your own life. Make good choices.