Corporate objectives define the correct policies guiding automated behavioral modification

Evidence

In this template of social relations, behavioral modification operates just beyond the threshold of human awareness to induce, reward, goad, punish, and reinforce behavior consistent with “correct policies.” Thus, Facebook learns that it can predictably move the societal dial on voting patterns, emotional states, or anything else that it chooses. Niantic Labs and Google learn that they can predictably enrich McDonald’s bottom line or that of any other customer. In each case, corporate objectives define the “policies” toward which confluent behavior harmoniously streams. — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 1316

Categorization

• XREF: The unconscious behavioral-modification template connects directly to Zuboff’s earlier chapters on Skinner and to Facebook’s emotional-contagion experiment. — connects to: Corporations weaponize game mechanics purely to engineer customer and employee behavior — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 984; Economies of action get institutionalized into automated algorithms that modify behavior — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 939; Ethical rules for robots require human specifications of their key variables — Grégoire Chamayou, A Theory of the Drone, 676

Broader Connections

• Economies of action get institutionalized into automated algorithms that modify behavior #expands (0.80) — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 939
• Ethical rules for robots require human specifications of their key variables #corroborates (0.75) — Grégoire Chamayou, A Theory of the Drone, 676