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from the psychological-warfare-in-peacetime dept.
The Guardian has an article about a whistleblower from Cambridge Analytica, who claims to have devised a strategy to "weaponize" Facebook profiles, in order to use those profile for targeted advertising to sway the US elections in 2016.
(The Guardian headline titles are often crap). I read a few older articles, presumably by the same author: she had a series of articles in March--May 2017 about Cambridge Analytica being used as a weapon to convince British voters to vote for Brexit in the referendum. It seems that her investigative journalism encouraged this wistleblower to "come out" and be interviewed by her.
Here's one: https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2017/may/07/the-great-british-brexit-robbery-hijacked-democracy
Democracy is the worst form of government, except for all the others (Churchill), but when does advertising cross the line into psychological warfare against your own population?
Additional coverage at The Register
(Score: 2) by NotSanguine on Tuesday March 20 2018, @07:48PM (6 children)
I'd also point out that without force, the threat of force, the threat of economic/social/emotional loss and that sort of thing and/or drugs and indoctrination, you really can't get someone to do something they don't already want to do.
You might be able to get someone to buy Sunkist over Fanta orange or something similar, but you're never going to get someone to purchase orange soda just through marketing unless they actually like orange soda.
Just to clarify, I didn't need my experiences in market research to tell me that. It's simple common sense.
So I can only assume you were being disingenuous with your comment. Out of curiosity, why?
No, no, you're not thinking; you're just being logical. --Niels Bohr
(Score: 2) by ilPapa on Tuesday March 20 2018, @09:28PM (5 children)
Not in the least. You sounded like you knew what you were talking about and I asked for an honest assessment.
I believe that marketing is one of the biggest modern dangers. The techniques are actually too good. And, I'm convinced that it can absolutely get someone to act against their desires and against their best interests. See: tobacco advertising. See: political advertising.
But no, I really wasn't being disingenuous.
You are still welcome on my lawn.
(Score: 2) by NotSanguine on Tuesday March 20 2018, @10:06PM (4 children)
Actually, I do have a pretty good idea as to what I'm talking about.
However, it seems pretty obvious that no matter how many times I tell you to beat yourself over the head with the sharp end of a claw hammer, you're not going to do it.
While it is true that "top-of-mind awareness" [wikipedia.org] can have an effect on people, and appeals to emotion can also be powerful, even if I use those techniques with maximum effectiveness, I still won't be able to get you to beat yourself over the head with the sharp end of a claw hammer.
Now, if I locked you in a room with 500 watt halogen lamps, blared loud music endlessly, forced you to exercise to exhaustionand only fed you low-protein gruel for a couple of weeks, all the while telling you that beating yourself over the head with the sharp end of a claw hammer was good and healthful, I might have some success.
If I added certain drugs which make you more susceptible to suggestion, such as various psychedelics and possibly scopolamine, I could probably move that timetable up a bit.
I could absolutely get you to empty your bank accounts by threatening you and/or your family with violence, especially if I murdered one of them in front of you to make sure you knew I meant business.
But no amount of marketing or advertising can make you do that.
There are certainly exceptions to that like cults and cult-like organizations such as EST/The Landmark Group. At the same time, even those environments usually just get the fairly passive personalities and do so by brow-beating and high-pressure tactics.
Which is also a technique that police often use and, more often than you'd think, get false confessions.
I'll reiterate. Advertising and marketing can (and does) spread (mis)information and the more heavily those messages are presented, if *and only* if such messages are compatible with your beliefs/world view/desires/self-image can they be accepted.
Even when there are direct appeals to emotion, marketing and advertising cannot make you do things you don't want to do. Full stop.
That said, various brainwashing/control techniques can be successful, but (assuming a person of average intelligence) those require drugs, will/ego sapping abuse, physical privation and other methods (some of which I mentioned above).
Control/power over others is a complex thing, and it doesn't happen unless certain criteria are met. This book [archive.org], although in a much different context, discusses these dynamics in detail.
Persuasion is a different animal altogether, although it is a necessary step in gaining control. But except in extraordinary circumstances, persuasion at a distance (as seen in marketing/advertising) is not sufficient. At best, it might garner an opening for more direct methods of persuasion. But nothing more.
Now go beat yourself over the head with the sharp end of a claw hammer, IlPapa! Do it now!
No, no, you're not thinking; you're just being logical. --Niels Bohr
(Score: 3, Insightful) by ilPapa on Tuesday March 20 2018, @11:28PM (3 children)
I do not doubt you.
That's a pretty good description of modern life in late-stage consumerism.
The psychiatric/pharmaceutical industry's got you covered there. Do you realize how many people are on various types of antidepressants/antipsychotics?
Everybody has fears. Everybody wants to be accepted, protected, acknowledged and loved. Marketing uses all of these messages to control.
I'll bet if I could interview you for 30 minutes, and if you were honest, I could discover three ways in which marketing has made you do something against your own best interest.
You are still welcome on my lawn.
(Score: 2) by NotSanguine on Tuesday March 20 2018, @11:48PM (2 children)
Oh IlPapa! Tu es tellement drôle. Prenez-moi maintenant, comme Richelieu aurait pu le faire!
--Francoise Bertaut de Motteville [wikipedia.org]
No, no, you're not thinking; you're just being logical. --Niels Bohr
(Score: 2) by ilPapa on Wednesday March 21 2018, @12:21AM (1 child)
You know it turns me on when you speak French.
You are still welcome on my lawn.
(Score: 2) by NotSanguine on Wednesday March 21 2018, @12:31AM
Calm yourself, Gomez!
No, no, you're not thinking; you're just being logical. --Niels Bohr