Nobel Prize-winning economist Richard Thaler explains how “Nudge” has changed the world. Plus: squirrel-inspired robots! Additional resources from Richard Thaler: Pick up "Nudge: The Final Edition" at your local bookstore: https://www.indiebound.org/book/9780143137009 Faculty page: https://www.chicagobooth.edu/faculty/directory/t/richard-h-thaler Follow @R_Thaler on Twitter: https://twitter.com/r_thaler Nobel Prize page: https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/economic-sciences/2017/thaler/facts/ Scientists are studying parkour-ing squirrels to make better robots by Cameron Duke Hunt, N. H., Jinn, J., Jacobs, L. F., & Full, R. J. (2021). Acrobatic squirrels learn to leap and land on tree branches without falling. Science, 373(6555), 697–700. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.abe5753 Leaping squirrels! Parkour is one of their many feats of agility. (2021, August 5). EurekAlert! https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/923924 Nicoletta Lanese. (2021, August 5). (VIDEO) Watch squirrels perform parkour-like stunts for peanuts. Livescience.com; Live Science. https://www.livescience.com/squirrels-doing-parkour-study.html Mark Rober video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hFZFjoX2cGg Follow Curiosity Daily on your favorite podcast app to learn something new every day withCody Gough andAshley Hamer. Still curious? Get exclusive science shows, nature documentaries, and more real-life entertainment on discovery+! Go to https://discoveryplus.com/curiosity to start your 7-day free trial. discovery+ is currently only available for US subscribers.
Nobel Prize-winning economist Richard Thaler explains how “Nudge” has changed the world. Plus: squirrel-inspired robots!
Additional resources from Richard Thaler:
Scientists are studying parkour-ing squirrels to make better robots by Cameron Duke
Follow Curiosity Daily on your favorite podcast app to learn something new every day with Cody Gough and Ashley Hamer. Still curious? Get exclusive science shows, nature documentaries, and more real-life entertainment on discovery+! Go to https://discoveryplus.com/curiosity to start your 7-day free trial. discovery+ is currently only available for US subscribers.
Find episode transcript here: https://curiosity-daily-4e53644e.simplecast.com/episodes/nobel-prize-winner-richard-thaler-on-how-nudge-changed-the-world-plus-squirrel-inspired-robots
CODY: Hi! You’re about to get smarter in just a few minutes with Curiosity Daily from curiosity-dot-com. I’m Cody Gough.
ASHLEY: And I’m Ashley Hamer. Today, you’ll learn how the concept of “Nudge” has helped governments and corporations around the world change your behavior, with Nobel Prize winning economist Richard Thaler. You’ll also learn about how scientists are building better robots by watching squirrels do parkour.
CODY: Let’s satisfy some curiosity.
Back in 2008, behavioral economists Richard Thaler and Cass Sunstein published the book "Nudge." It was all about how tiny changes in how people make choices can have big outcomes. A lot has happened since then: organizations in the private and public sector have adopted strategies in the book and Richard Thaler was awarded the 2017 Nobel Prize in Economics, all while people have faced new and different challenges in their decision making. So Richard Thaler and Cass Sunstein decided to publish a new edition of their mega-bestseller, called "Nudge: The Final Edition." Here's a conversation we had with Richard Thaler about the basics of Nudge theory and how things have changed since the first edition.
[CLIP 4:22]
So there you go! When you make good things the default, people tend to choose good things. Again, that was Richard Thaler, recipient of the 2017 Nobel Prize in Economics and co-author of the new book "Nudge: The Final Edition." Richard will be back tomorrow to talk about the darker side of nudge theory, so don’t forget to come back tomorrow.
Squirrels seem to leap effortlessly through the treetops, but it’s not clear how they learn to pull off such parkour-like maneuvers without falling. Recently, a group of researchers set up a squirrely obstacle course and recorded their sleek moves with high-speed cameras to learn their secrets.
The researchers weren’t just out to film a viral Youtube video, though. Understanding how different animals maneuver through their environments is an important step in designing robots that can do the same things. Previous research into the velcro-like grip of geckos and the wall-climbing abilities of cockroaches has led to important advancements in robotics and materials science. If we know how squirrels parkour through the trees, a squirrel-like robot may not be far behind.
To find participants for their experiment, the researchers recruited volunteers from their university campus. The volunteers were all fox squirrels. They were rewarded for navigating the tiny Ninja-warrior course with a small cup of peanuts at the end.
The course was made up of rods that simulated tree branches. And like tree branches, some were rigid, while others were more springy.
The stiffness and flexibility of the quote-unquote “branches” was important, since the squirrels would adjust their jumping strategies to match. For the more rigid branches, the squirrels would hop from the end of the branch, but when the branch was bendy enough to flex under the squirrel’s weight, they would leap from the studiest point on the branch, presumably to maximize the stability of the launch.
As impressive as their acrobatics were, the squirrels weren’t perfect. They’d often overshoot their jumps, especially when they had to jump over a wide gap. But slow-motion videos revealed that the squirrels had ways of correcting their mistakes in mid-air. They could shift their weight during the jump in order to grab a branch they might otherwise miss. As a result, despite a few miscalculations, the squirrels almost never missed their target.
But the most impressive part was when the squirrels were faced with a long jump. Like, really, long: three to five body lengths. In those cases, the squirrels would run up the wall behind them, launch themselves off of it, and perform a partial backflip, often grabbing the branch with their back feet.
Squirrels have had generations of evolution to perfect this athletic way of avoiding predators and searching for food. Maybe someday, we’ll have squirrel-sized robots that can use impressive acrobatics to fly from branch to branch. Well, maybe it’s not flying — it’s falling with style.
Let’s do a quick recap of what we learned today
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ASHLEY: The writer for today’s first story was Cameron Duke.
CODY: Our managing editor is Ashley Hamer, who was also an audio editor on today’s episode.
ASHLEY: Our producer and lead audio editor is Cody Gough.
CODY: [AD LIB SOMETHING FUNNY] Join us again tomorrow for “a thunder of jets in an open sky, a streak of gray and a cheerful ‘Hi!’” ...to learn something new in just a few minutes.
ASHLEY: And until then, stay curious!