Read more: "Nudge power: Big government's little pushes"
DID you hear the one about the flies in the toilet? They took off, flew round the world, and started a revolution.
It was 1999, and the authorities at Schiphol Airport in Amsterdam were looking to cut costs. One of the most expensive jobs was keeping the floor of the men's toilet clean. The obvious solution would have been to post signs politely reminding men not to pee on the floor. But economist Aad Kieboom had an idea: etch a picture of a fly into each urinal. When they tried it, the cleaning bill reportedly fell 80 per cent.
Amsterdam's urinal flies have since become the most celebrated example of a "nudge", or strategy for changing human behaviour on the basis of a scientific understanding of what real people are like – in this case, the fact that men pee straighter ...
To continue reading this article, subscribe to receive access to all of newscientist.com, including 20 years of archive content.
