Where the words come from
Nudges toward better behaviour as an alternative to mandatory regulation, and the pension-enrolment case behind default choices — Principles of Economics 2e, OpenStax, licensed CC BY 4.0. https://openstax.org/books/principles-economics-2e/pages/6-3-behavioral-economics-an-alternative-framework-for-consumer-choice. Changes: Only the contrast between "nudges" and "mandatory regulations" is drawn on, in the definition box and the judgement; the US enrolment figures are not repeated, because the sibling module on rational decisions uses them; every sentence is our own wording.
Automatic enrolment introduced in 2012 to make long-term saving the norm; around nine in ten (89%) eligible employees saving into a workplace pension in 2024; employee, employer and tax-relief shares of saving — Workplace pension participation and savings trends of eligible employees: 2009 to 2024, Department for Work and Pensions (July 2025), GOV.UK, Open Government Licence v3.0. https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/workplace-pension-participation-and-savings-trends-2009-to-2024/workplace-pension-participation-and-savings-trends-of-eligible-employees-2009-to-2024. Changes: "Around 9-in-10 (89%)" written as "around nine in ten"; tax relief's 11% share written as "around eleven per cent"; the card's definition of a default choice and the mechanism in the explain are ours.
Workers keep the right to opt out, to preserve individual responsibility for the decision to save; nine per cent of those enrolled in 2018/19 opted out within one month — Automatic Enrolment evaluation report 2019, Department for Work and Pensions, GOV.UK, Open Government Licence v3.0. https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/automatic-enrolment-evaluation-report-2019/automatic-enrolment-evaluation-report-2019. Changes: "In order to preserve individual responsibility for the decision to save, workers have the right to opt out" condensed into the explain; the opt-out figure kept with the report's qualifier, "among employers with a scheme used for automatic enrolment", shortened; the opening sentence on putting off saving is ours.
Around three in ten private-sector defined contribution savers (4.3 million of 14.2 million) saving at the automatic enrolment minimum of 8% of qualifying earnings; most low earners not saving much beyond the minimum — Analysis of Automatic Enrolment saving levels, Department for Work and Pensions (September 2025), GOV.UK, Open Government Licence v3.0. https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/analysis-of-automatic-enrolment-saving-levels/analysis-of-automatic-enrolment-saving-levels. Changes: "Around 3-in-10" and "8%" written out, with the 8% stated as the total from employer and employee together (our gloss on the AE minimum); "The majority of low earners do not save much beyond the AE minimum levels" condensed; the analysis gives no cause, so inertia is offered as one reason and is ours.
The HMRC tax-letter trials: in the first, 140,000 taxpayers, the old-style letter against new letters carrying the "9 out of 10 people in Britain pay their tax on time" message with postcode and town versions, 67.5% (old-style) and 83.0% (town) having responded after three months; in the second, about 1,400 late payers, only the localised social-norm line varied, payment rates 38.7% and 45.5% — Fraud, error and debt: behavioural insights team paper (February 2012), Cabinet Office and Behavioural Insights Team, GOV.UK, Open Government Licence v3.0. https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/fraud-error-and-debt-behavioural-insights-team-paper. Changes: From the paper's PDF, Applying behavioural insights to reduce fraud, error and debt; the first trial condensed to its two end rates, with the intermediate versions (72.5% national, 79.0% postcode) not given; the second trial condensed to its two payment rates.
Questions, options, diagrams and feedback are our own. Figures credited to a source above are that source's; every other figure is invented to show the method.