PT - JOURNAL ARTICLE AU - William Simkulet TI - Nudging, informed consent and bullshit AID - 10.1136/medethics-2017-104480 DP - 2018 Aug 01 TA - Journal of Medical Ethics PG - 536--542 VI - 44 IP - 8 4099 - http://jme.bmj.com/content/44/8/536.short 4100 - http://jme.bmj.com/content/44/8/536.full SO - J Med Ethics2018 Aug 01; 44 AB - Some philosophers have argued that during the process of obtaining informed consent, physicians should try to nudge their patients towards consenting to the option the physician believes best, where a nudge is any influence that is expected to predictably alter a person’s behaviour without (substantively) restricting her options. Some proponents of nudging even argue that it is a necessary and unavoidable part of securing informed consent. Here I argue that nudging is incompatible with obtaining informed consent. I assume informed consent requires that a physician tells her patient the truth about her options and argue that nudging is incompatible with truth-telling. Instead, nudging satisfies Harry Frankfurt’s account of bullshit.