CFP: 12th Braga Meetings on Ethics and Political Philosophy - Panel: The Ethics and the Effectiveness of Nudges

• EXTENDED Submission deadline: 17 april 2022

The Meetings on Ethics and Political Philosophy is an annual event organized by the Centre for Ethics, Politics and Society (CEPS) at the University of Minho (Braga). This year the Meetings will be organized around a series of panels focusing on the Center’s research agenda. One of them is devoted to the Ethics and the Effectiveness of Nudges.

Nudges are a highly discussed and relatively new tool available for choice architects in the public and private sectors. Nudges do not involve coercion, manipulation, or significant economic incentives or disincentives. Instead, they are interventions on the context of choice, and conceived to leverage human cognitive biases. Debates about the effectiveness and the ethics of nudges have been raised since early investigation into these cognitive tools. The first aspect is pivotal in assessing whether and in what measure governments should devote resources to establish and making fully operational nudge units. The second aspect needs further investigation since, in the worst-case scenario, nudges might be at odds with the respect for autonomy of choices in modern liberal democracies, regardless of their effectiveness. The aim of the panel is to explore the effectiveness and the ethical issues involved in employment of nudges in policy, as well as the connection between such aspects. Possible topics for submission include, among others:

•  What conditions determine the success and failure of a nudge? 
• Do cultural differences affect the strength of a nudge?
• Should nudges inform evidence-based policies?
• Are the ethical conditions identified in the public sector applicable to the private sector?
• Should the processes by which nudges are implemented be transparent to citizens?
• Is there an acceptable trade-off between effectiveness and ethical constraints in the implementation of nudges?

If you want to apply, please submit an abstract, of 400-500 words along with five keywords, of your paper prepared for peer review by 17 April 2022. We will respond by the end of April 2022. All proposals must be submitted online through our website using the Abstract submission Form:

https://12bragameetings.weebly.com/panel-9---the-ethics-and-the-effectiveness-of-nudges.html

All inquirues about the panel should be sent to [email protected]