ABSTRACT
“Hands on Nudging” is a comment on D. Wade Hand's recent essay, “Libertarian Paternalism: Taking Econs Seriously.” In that essay, Hands refines a criticism of libertarian paternalism (LP) and “nudging” on the grounds that they assume that individuals possess a set of latent preferences that satisfy the standard axioms, but that their choices fail to reveal their preferences because of psychological failings. Since most people, in contrast, make up many of their preferences “on the fly,” LP does not apply to most cases of problematic preferences. This essay then goes on to argue that rather than neutralizing the errors caused by psychological foibles, nudges are among the factors shaping preferences, which are in turn only a fallible indicator of well-being.
