“Litter has always been a problem at this school and it always will be.” I still remember hearing an experienced deputy head saying this at a school I used to teach at. Although periodic attempts were made to address the litter problem, the rubbish continued to pile up; it appeared that the deputy head was right.

Or was she? Leadership teams often spend lots of time devising elaborate plans to crack down on littering, or lateness, or poor uniform. The focus is often on improved detection and the imposition of progressively harsher sanctions. But such strategies, which require excessive effort for minimal gains, are bound to falter and fade while the issues remain.

However, behavioural psychology offers an alternative approach: nudge theory. A “nudge” is when you offer someone a choice and, without forbidding any options, steer them towards making the choice you want them to make.

In their 2009 book Nudge: Improving Decisions About Health, Wealth and Happiness, Richard Thaler and Cass Sunstein outline the two systems of human thought that underpin nudge theory.

System 1 is our “automatic pilot”. It operates instinctively, making decisions second by second, often without our being aware that a choice is being made.

It harks back to the earliest times of human development, takes little effort and uses approximations and assumptions to maximise immediate satisfaction and minimise danger. By contrast, system 2 is harder, and involves making a concentrated effort to solve complex problems.

Because all humans are naturally lazy, we prefer to use system 1 wherever possible and this is arguably even more the case for adolescents. This is to our advantage. Our students’ tendency not to think things through is what presents us with the opportunity to nudge them into making better decisions without realising.

Nudge theory lies within a framework that Thaler and Sunstein term “libertarian paternalism”. This proposes that if you frame choices carefully, you can influence people to make the best decisions for themselves, even when they’re unaware a choice is being made.

So, what does all this have to do with school leadership? Well, Thaler and Sunstein suggest that people make poor choices when they are inexperienced, poorly informed and receiving feedback that is slow or infrequent. Students are, by their very nature, inexperienced and poorly informed - a key purpose of their schooling is to change this.

What’s more, the consequences of the poor choices they often make are almost always deferred. Failing to hand in homework tomorrow will result in poor exam grades in a few years’ time. Dropping litter will result in an untidy and unclean environment for all in the future. Missing school or arriving late will reduce academic progress eventually but you get to enjoy a day in bed now, so who cares?

Schools traditionally favour commands, rules and prohibitions to compensate for this. But nudge theory proposes that problems arise because students’ minds are overly reliant on instinctive thinking.

If we school leaders could manipulate this at a whole-school level, we could proactively reduce the number of poor choices that students make without having to resort to exhaustive lists of rules and increasingly stringent punishments: minimum input, maximum impact.

So, what “nudges” can school leaders put in place to change behaviour across the school? Here are a few suggestions, some of which you may already be doing without even realising it.

Conformity

We know that young people are heavily influenced by the choices their peers make. Always emphasise that most students are doing the right thing.

For example, let them know explicitly that 92 per cent of students are handing in their homework on time, or that 95 per cent of students think you should tidy your lunch table after you’ve finished.

Mere-measurement effect

Experiments show that simply measuring or questioning someone’s intentions (known as the mere-measurement effect) makes them more likely to do it.

Harness this by asking students what attendance they are aiming for or how many hours of revision they plan to do.

Loss aversion

People hate to give things up, even more than they are pleased to gain the same thing, so give examples that illustrate what it is your student stands to lose. For example, let students know the correlation between grades missed and days of learning lost through poor attendance.

Messaging

Make the abstract concrete by exemplifying the impact of seemingly inconsequential behaviours. For example, let students know how many bags of rubbish are picked up on the school field each week.

Appearances

Placing images of eyes in a shared kitchen area has been shown to increase the amount paid into an honesty box for coffee and tea.

The same principle lies behind the life-sized cardboard cut-outs of police officers used to reduce shoplifting.

Do your own experiments with eyes and cut-outs in areas that you know are troublespots for antisocial behaviours, but that are difficult to monitor at all times.

Word association

Displaying words associated with moods will establish those moods even when students are unaware of having read the signs. Place words such as “happy”, “positive” and “determined” on the walls in areas where students congregate. Research shows that they will start to demonstrate these traits (change the words regularly to maximise impact).

Students make thousands of instinctive choices a day. If we can tap into them and nudge students towards doing the right thing, we can reduce the need for the crackdowns and harsh sanctions that often do not seem to be a lasting fix for behaviour problems.

Jo Clemmet is a secondary geography and economics teacher, and a senior leader

This article originally appeared in the 2 April 2021 issue under the headline “Nudge, nudge: say no more to inspire better choices”