For the last few decades, behavioral economics has endeavored to identify the biases that impact our choices, as well as the “nudges” to help improve our decision-making and behavior. As those insights came to light, a team of UK behavioral scientists began to codify techniques and concepts into a standardized framework (Dolan, Hallsworth, Halpern, King, Metcalfe, & Vlaev, 2012). That framework, known through the mnemonic MINDSPACE, highlights nine categories of nudges that have a significant impact on thoughts and behavior—messenger, incentives, norms, defaults, salience, priming, affect, commitments, and ego. More recently, the content of those categories was updated and expanded as the MINDSPACE X framework (Hodson, Kirilov, & Vlaev, 2025).
Although each category may seem quite different, the nine MINDSPACE categories are all united by their impact on a shared cognitive and persuasive pathway. Put simply; they work on our quick and automatic System 1 mental processes rather than our thoughtful and deliberate System 2 processes. Thus, they also persuade through the peripheral route of cues and mental shortcuts rather than the central route of facts and information. Nevertheless, as we will discuss below, each category of nudge impacts those automatic mental processes and peripheral cues through its own unique method. So, let’s look at each one in a bit more detail.
Messenger: First and foremost, “who” is doing the persuading matters. Specifically, how someone feels about a particular messenger will help or hinder that messenger’s persuasion efforts. For example, someone who is familiar, or considered an expert, will often be more influential than a novice or a stranger. A power differential between individuals can matter here too.
Incentives: People are also strongly and automatically influenced by rewards. They can be persuaded through fear of loss and through scarcity as well. In fact, the push and pull between gains and losses is a strong motivational force that underlies many behaviors.
Norms: Often, as people are being motivated by gains and losses, they also consider what other people are doing. They look to others for information and follow the crowd to see who is getting the best deals and outcomes. As a result, people can be persuaded by norms to behave in ways that are socially approved and individually rewarded.
Defaults: Also, because individuals are risk averse, they tend to stick to habitual patterns of behavior. They are biased toward maintaining the status quo. Thus, it is often easier to get them to repeat an existing pattern of behavior than it is to get them to change it. As a result, default choices are often followed.
Salience: If you do want to shake someone out of an automatic habit, however, you need to get their attention. Things that are highly visible, new, different, and easy to do are particularly influential. Essentially, people pay attention to what is salient—and they are persuaded by excitement to do something different.
Priming: After you have their attention, however, you need to point them in a new direction. Cues, associations, and bits of information can refocus people by prompting or “priming” related behaviors or goals. For example, background primes like advertisements can change someone’s focus, making a specific behavior more or less likely.
Affect: Emotions and moods can be primed too. Even a simple song can change someone’s feelings in the moment. Furthermore, a person’s mood or emotional state is associated with how they think and act, especially regarding risks and rewards. So, changing moods is an essential part of changing minds and behaviors as well.
Commitment: Ultimately, people want to be stable and consistent, in both their thoughts and behaviors. So, the fundamental goal for behavior change is to get someone to commit to something—and then they will stick with it. Having them set a goal and share it with others is particularly effective.
Ego: Finally, people want to feel good about themselves. It is often the underlying motive for everything they do. It is why people try to maximize gains, avoid losses, set goals, change or maintain habits, and make commitments. It is all in the service of creating and maintaining a positive and consistent self-image. As a result, no matter how you try and nudge them, they will generally only do what is positive, affirming, and consistent with their ego and identity.
Behavioral Economics Essential Reads
Taken together then, this framework is an all-encompassing process. It takes us from the persuasive messenger to the ego/self of the individual—through the important interpersonal processes in between. Each one of those categories is a persuasive world, however, requiring more exploration than allowed by a single article (perhaps in future articles though, so stay tuned).
Nevertheless, the MINDSPACE model does give us a map of the overall territory of behavioral economic nudging and persuasion. It is a much-needed organizing framework to more effectively guide behavior and decision-making. By highlighting the fact that people want to feel good about themselves, make commitments, get along with others, and work toward rewarding interaction, the framework shows us a positive and ethical path forward for our persuasive efforts too.
© 2025 by Jeremy S. Nicholson, M.A., M.S.W., Ph.D. All rights reserved.
