American public rejected behaviorism’s claims over individual freedom

Evidence

According to Skinner’s biographer, “the battle had climaxed.” The public had made Beyond Freedom & Dignity a bestseller “but had just as surely rejected Skinner’s argument that there were cultural matters more important than preserving and extending individual freedom.” — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 1022

Categorization

• QUESTION: This public rejection of overt behaviorism in the 1970s sets up the irony that the same society quietly accepted far more pervasive behavioral modification via surveillance capitalism. Worth tracing how the framing shift made acceptance possible.
• XREF: connects to: 1970s congressional scrutiny drove behavior modification out of civilian institutions — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 1020; Behaviorism holds that free will is just ignorance of behavioral determinants — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 1164; Behaviorism treated freedom and ignorance as synonyms — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 1152 (+6 more)

Broader Connections

• Behaviorism holds that free will is just ignorance of behavioral determinants #expands (0.85) — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 1164
• Behaviorism treated freedom and ignorance as synonyms #expands (0.85) — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 1152
• Skinner envisioned a population-scale technology of behavioral control that rejected freedom #expands (0.85) — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 1012
• Early behaviorists saw knowledge requiring the forfeit of freedom #expands (0.80) — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 1159
• Skinner’s behaviorism prefigured Pentland’s dismissal of the autonomous individual #expands (0.80) — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 1399
• Skinner rejected democracy, markets, humanism, and religion as cures #expands (0.80) — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 1184
• Skinner saw Enlightenment freedom values as impediments to behavioral science #expands (0.80) — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 1207