The Power of Fifty Bits: The New Science of Turning Good Intentions into Positive Results – Practical Behavioral Science for Better Choices and Changed Behavior

Going beyond the bestsellers Predictably Irrational and Thinking, Fast and Slow, this is the first "how to" guide on choice architecture that shows you how to help customers, employees, coworkers, and clients make better choices to get what they truly want.

Of the ten million bits of information our brains process each second, only fifty bits are devoted to conscious thought. Because our brains are wired to be inattentive, we often fall prey to cognitive biases and choose without thinking, acting against our own interests―what we truly want. As the former Chief Scientist of Express Scripts, a Fortune 25 healthcare company dedicated to making the use of prescription medications safer and more affordable, Bob Nease is an expert on applying behavioral sciences to health care. Now, he applies his knowledge to the wider world, providing important practical solutions for behavior change that marketers, human resources professionals, teachers, and even parents can use to improve the actions of others around them, and get the positive results they want.

Nease offers a set of powerful and effective strategies to change behavior, including:

• Require Choice―compel people to deliberately choose among options
• Lock in Good Intentions―allow people to make decisions today about choices they will face in the future
• Let It Ride―set the default to the desired option and let people opt out if they wish
• Get in the Flow―go to where peoples’ attention is likely to be naturally
• Reframe the Choices―set the framework people use to consider options and choices
• Piggyback It―connect the desired choice or behavior with something they already like or are engaged in
• Simplify . . . Wisely―make right choices frictionless and easy, make wrong choices more difficult
• And more.

Bob Nease, PhD, served as the chief scientist of Express Scripts and is the author of more than seventy peer-
reviewed papers. He was also an associate professor of internal medicine at Washington University in St. Louis and an assistant professor at the Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth College. He received the Henry Christian Award for Excellence in Research from the American Federation for Medical Research and the URAC’s Health Care Consumer Empowerment and Protection Award. He and his wife divide their time between Phoenix, Austin, and Italy.