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All over the world, governments are using nudges as regulatory tools. Is this ethical? Much of the answer depends on whether nudges promote or instead undermine welfare, autonomy, and dignity. Many nudges, and those that deserve support, promote some or all of those ideals, and undermine none of them. If welfare is our guide, much nudging is actually required on ethical grounds, even if it comes from government. If autonomy is our guide, much nudging is also required on ethical grounds, in part because some nudges actually promote autonomy, in part because some nudges enable people to devote their limited time and attention to their most important concerns. Finally, nudges should not, and need not, compromise individual dignity, which many nudges actually promote. There is, however, a genuine risk that some nudges might count as manipulation; an emphasis on welfare, autonomy, and dignity helps to show how to avoid that risk.
I. The Central Argument ............................... 414
II. Concepts and Definitions ............................... 417
A. In General ............................... 417
B. The Inevitability of Choice Architecture ............................... 420
C. Spontaneous Orders and Visible Hands ............................... 422
III. The Trap of Abstraction ............................... 424
A. Nudges and Navigability ............................... 424
B. Three Distinctions ............................... 426
C. Illicit Reasons and Transparency ............................... 428
IV. "As Judged By Themselves" ............................... 429
A. The Basic Standard ............................... 429
B. Questions and Doubts ............................... 430
1. Objectively Good Lives? ............................... 430
2. Ex Ante or Ex Post? ............................... 430
3. Preferences About Preferences ............................... 431
4. Informed Judgments and Empirical Puzzles ............................... 432
5. Self-Control ............................... 432
V. Applied Ethics ............................... 433
A. Welfare ............................... 433
B. Autonomy ............................... 437
C. Dignity ............................... 439
D. Manipulation ............................... 442
E. Biased Officials ............................... 449
Conclusion........................450
I. The Central Argument
The goal of this Article is to explore the principal ethical objections to the use of nudges and choice architecture as regulatory tools.1 As we shall see, the ethical issues largely turn on whether nudges promote or instead undermine welfare, autonomy, and dignity.2 As we shall also see, the ethical analysis of nudges is similar to the corresponding analysis for other tools, such as fines and mandates, but there are some distinctive wrinkles, involving potential threats to autonomy and dignity. In particular, a...