#7 Jennifer Blumenthal-Barby: Is Nudging Ethically Required?

Bio(un)ethical

In this episode, we speak with Dr. Jennifer Blumenthal-Barby, a philosopher and bioethicist at Baylor College of Medicine, about why she thinks clinicians are often permitted, and even required, to use insights from behavioral economics and decision psychology to shape patients’ medical decisions.

(00:00) Our introduction
(05:50) Interview begins
(07:57) What is a nudge?
(15:15) Is there any such thing as pure rational persuasion?
(18:12) What makes a decision good or bad?
(23:15) Can nudges make patients’ medical decisions better?
(42:40) How credible are the findings of decision science?
(45:21) Do nudges disrespect autonomy?
(56:16) Justifying nudges as instances of soft paternalism
(59:08) Are pro-social medical nudges also justified?
(1:01:30) How the doctor-patient relationship affects the ethics of nudging
(1:05:51) Is nudging ever wrong?

Relevant readings:

• Jennifer Blumenthal-Barby, Good Ethics and Bad Choices: The Relevance of Behavioral Economics for Medical Ethics
• Jennifer Blumenthal-Barby, “Between Reason and Coercion: Ethically Permissible Influence in Health Care and Health Policy Contexts”
• Moti Gorin, Steve Joffe, Neal Dickert, and Scott Halpern, “Justifying Clinical Nudges”
• Robert Noggle, “Pressure, Trickery, and a Unified Account of Manipulation”
• Sophie Gibert, “The Wrong of Wrongful Manipulation”

Bio(un)ethical is a bioethics podcast written and edited by Leah Pierson and Sophie Gibert, with production support by Audiolift.co. Our music is written by Nina Khoury and performed by Social Skills. We are supported by a grant from Amplify Creative Grants.