Social influence becomes a design mechanism for herding populations toward planned outcomes

Evidence

A final question is urgently posed: “how to get the humans in these systems to participate in the plan?” His answers do not lie in persuasion or education but in behavioral modification. He says we need “new predictive theories of human decision making” as well as “incentive mechanism design,” an idea that is comparable to Skinner’s “schedules of reinforcement.” Regarding how to get humans to follow the plan, Pentland offers the principle of “social influence” to explain the design mechanisms through which millions of human beings can be herded toward the guaranteed outcomes of safety, stability, and efficiency. — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 1364

Categorization

• XREF: Directly extends the Skinner/schedules-of-reinforcement thread Zuboff traced in earlier chapters on behavioral modification; also connects to the ‘nudging’ tradition of Thaler and Sunstein. — connects to: Herding forecloses action alternatives to move behavior toward near-certain outcomes remotely. — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 922; Economies of action are deliberately built to herd users along prescribed courses. — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 1087; Influencer pastoral imaginings mask the actual supply-chain logic of moves — Grant Bollmer, Katherine Guinness, The Influencer Factory: A Marxist…, 313 (+1 more)
• DEEPTHINKING: The open admission that persuasion and education are bypassed in favor of behavioral modification to secure ‘participation’ — this redefines consent itself, worthy of extended sitting.

Broader Connections

• Influencer pastoral imaginings mask the actual supply-chain logic of moves #exemplifies (0.85) — Grant Bollmer, Katherine Guinness, The Influencer Factory, 313
• Interdependent individual actions produce collective outcomes no one deliberately chose #qualifies (0.75) — Roderick M. Kramer, Geoffrey J. Leonardelli, Robert W. Livingston, Social Cognition, Social Identity, and…, 817