Frightening ads are demoralizing and counterproductive. If a percentage of the population can be persuaded to wear masks, then others will be motivated to follow suit and will also be reminded of other precautions to take. The kind of persuasive measures that are effective in health and safety campaigns might be inappropriate during election campaigns.
This is at least the beginning of Poul Anderson's fictional science of psychotechnics.
5 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
I'm deeply distrustful of having the gov't, any gov't, using "behavioral science" to modify the ways people behave. That can lead all too easily to a kind of brainwashing inducing people to meekly accepting and doing what ever the gov't wants them to do. So, no thanks!
Ad astra! Sean
It's actually a reflection of the deep human desire to be perceived as a "good team player" among their social reference group, aka 'tribe' or 'clan'.
This was an overwhelmingly important survival trait for the vast majority of human history and pre-history. If you weren't, you died and left no issue.
Kaor, Mr. Stirling!
I know, I agree. But this kind of "behavioral science" could all too easily be used for remolding people--we could end with something like the ghastly society seen in Huxley's BRAVE NEW WORLD.
Ad astra! Sean
Sean: not without genetic engineering. Humans are flexible, but within limits.
For one thing, no human institution can maintain purpose that long.
Kaor, Mr.Stirling!
I certainly hope not! Or that we don't get a tyranny ad long lived as that of the Zolotoyans in Anderson's "The High Ones," which lasted so long that it managed to genetic engineer intelligence out of that race.
Ad astra! Sean
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