Punjab researcher in UK proposes new theory to stop shoplifting
Wednesday, 20/05/2015
http://paper.hindustantimes.com/epaper/viewer.aspx
LONDON: An Indian researcher at Lancaster University, who hails from Pathankot in Punjab, has developed a new theory to stop shoplifting, which involves shopping centres designed to encourage shoplifters to think twice before acting by habit.
Dhruv Sharma has combined with research partner Myles Kilgallon Scott to propose changes that will encourage customers to get involved with “natural surveillance” to put shoplifters in the spotlight. They suggest environments that will push people in the right direction rather than sending them to prison or other punishments after the act. “When you go to a mall, it’s not just a building containing shops. It’s laid out to lead us in a preferred direction, and goods are placed in ways and locations to present with visual cues to buy,” said Sharma, adding: “So why can’t apply the similar idea to target shoplifters before they committing the crime?”
About what a shopping centre of the future should look like, he said it could place valuable items in “interactive spaces” that would encourage customers to watch people handling expensive goods. Every time customers pick up, say, a bottle of perfume, they could turn into a cartoon character on a big screen, or attract public attention in some other interactive way. For different products, you could have different characters, which would encourage children to watch,” said Sharma.
He added: “We are not suggesting we make it harder for people to interact with products. Instead, we propose ‘nudging’ people to act as observers, thereby enhancing surveillance.” The research paper titled ‘Nudge: Don’t Judge: Using Nudge Theory to Deter Shoplifters’ offers an alternative approach to tackling the problem, by drawing on sociology, design, and criminology. It advocates further investigation of Thaler and Sunstein’s famous ‘Nudge Theory’, used to form policy in economics and healthcare, which assumes people make some decisions unconsciously, non-rationally.
