Nudge by Richard H. Thaler

Published 2008 · 100,000 words · about 7 hours at an average pace · Nonfiction, Politics & Society, Psychology

How hard is Nudge to read?

Nudge scores 26 out of 100 for difficulty on ReadingRate, making it relatively accessible. The score is a weighted composite of nine measures: four of how hard the prose is to parse, five of how hard the meaning is to extract.

Vocabulary: 30 out of 100
Behavioral economics concepts explained accessibly.
Sentence structure: 28 out of 100
Abstraction: 40 out of 100
Behavioral economic theory grounded in concrete policy examples.
Information density: 45 out of 100
Rich with examples, research findings, and policy proposals.
Narrative indirection: 100 out of 100
Direct, thesis-driven argument.
Symbolic density: 100 out of 100
Analytical rather than symbolic.
Ironic distance: 15 out of 100
Thaler writes with humor and self-awareness.
Resolution withholding: 50 out of 100
Clear policy proposals offered throughout.
Structural complexity: 20 out of 100
Clear chapter-by-chapter organization from theory to application.

How Nudge is regarded

Nudge holds a literary regard score of 54 out of 100, weighing its place in the canon, its critical reception, its influence on other writers, and the standing of its author. Regard is measured separately from difficulty: a demanding book is not necessarily an admired one.

About the author

Richard H. Thaler, Cass R. Sunstein