Behavioral economics nudge is a microtargetted design geared towards a specific group of people, irrespective of the scale of intended intervention. In 2008, Richard Thaler and Cass Sunstein's book "Nudge: Improving Decisions About Health, Wealth, and Happiness" brought nudge theory to prominence. It also gained a following among US and UK politicians, in the private sector and in public health. The authors refer to influencing behaviour without coercion as libertarian paternalism and the influencers as choice architects. Thaler and Sunstein defined their concept as: In this form, drawing on behavioral economics, the nudge is more generally applied to influence behaviour. One of
Mike Thaler country as one of the authors for the Jello Reading Rocket program for one year. In 1989, a picture book called "The Teacher From the Black Lagoon™", written by Thaler and illustrated by Jared Lee, was published by Dodd, Mead & Company, Little Brown & Company, and Scholastic. From 1989–2007, The Black Lagoon™ picture book series adds 20 more titles, with 3 of the titles receiving International Reading Children's Choice Awards: "The Cafeteria Lady (1992), The Music Teacher"(2001) & "The Custodian"(2002). In 2002, Scholastic released the first Black Lagoon™ Chapter book, "The Class Trip from the Black Lagoon". Between 2002