Be Happy: Navigating Normative Issues in Behavioral and Well-Being Public Policy

被引:15
作者
Fabian, Mark [1 ]
Pykett, Jessica [2 ]
机构
[1] Univ Cambridge, Bennett Inst Publ Policy, Cambridge, England
[2] Univ Birmingham, Sch Geog Earth & Environm Sci, Birmingham, W Midlands, England
基金
英国经济与社会研究理事会;
关键词
behavioral economics; subjective well-being; happiness; public policy; legitimacy; ECONOMICS; HAPPINESS; STATE;
D O I
10.1177/1745691620984395
中图分类号
B84 [心理学];
学科分类号
04 ; 0402 ;
摘要
Psychological science is increasingly influencing public policy. Behavioral public policy (BPP) was a milestone in this regard because it influenced many areas of policy in a general way. Well-being public policy (WPP) is emerging as a second domain of psychological science with general applicability. However, advocacy for WPP is criticized on ethical and political grounds. These criticisms are reminiscent of those directed at BPP over the past decade. This deja vu suggests the need for interdisciplinary work that establishes normative principles for applying psychological science in public policy. We try to distill such principles for WPP from the normative debates over BPP. We argue that the uptake of BPP by governments was a function of its relatively strong normative and epistemic foundations in libertarian paternalism, or nudging, for short. We explain why the nudge framework is inappropriate for WPP. We then analyze how boosts offer a strict but feasible alternative framework for substantiating the legitimacy of well-being and behavioral policies. We illuminate how some WPPs could be fruitfully promoted as boosts and how they might fall short of the associated criteria.
引用
收藏
页码:169 / 182
页数:14
相关论文
共 86 条
[1]  
Adler M.D., 2019, Measuring social welfare
[2]  
Adler MD, 2013, DUKE LAW J, V62, P1509
[3]  
Alexandrova A., 2017, PHILOS SCI WELL BEIN, DOI DOI 10.1093/OSO/9780199300518.001.0001
[4]   Are subjective measures of well-being 'direct'? [J].
Angner, Erik .
AUSTRALASIAN JOURNAL OF PHILOSOPHY, 2011, 89 (01) :115-130
[5]  
[Anonymous], World development report 2015: Mind, society, and behavior. World Bank. 2015. World Development Report 2015: Mind, Society, DOI [DOI 10.1596/978-1-4648-0342-0, 10.1596/978-1-4648-0342-0]
[6]  
[Anonymous], 2011, Thinking fast and thinking slow
[7]  
[Anonymous], 2001, Women and Human Development
[8]  
[Anonymous], 1998, Development of Freedom
[9]  
[Anonymous], 2014, Why nudge?
[10]  
[Anonymous], 2013, Subjective Well-Being: Measuring Happiness, Suffering, and Other Dimensions of Experience, DOI DOI 10.17226/18548