Dark Nudges and Sludge in Big Alcohol

“Nudges” and other behavioral economic approaches exploit common cognitive biases in order to influence behavior and decision‐making. Nudges that encourage the consumption of harmful products have been termed “dark nudges.” The term “sludge” has also been used to describe strategies that utilize cognitive biases to make behavior change harder.
Alcohol industry CSR bodies use dark nudges and sludge, which utilize consumers’ cognitive biases to promote mixed messages about alcohol harms and to undermine scientific evidence….