Neuro-manipulation: Hacking Our Brains for Politics and Profit
On any given day, millions of people play Fortnite, a computer game in which they battle others in a real time, weapon-laden effort to be the only survivor. Some play surreptitiously in school classrooms; others play hours at a time at home. It's free (though users buy a lot of Fortnite paraphernalia), but they are hooked. That is by design. Facebook and YouTube try to keep users hooked as well, using algorithms that serve up more content they will like. More time online means more sales for Fortnite and more ad revenue for Facebook and YouTube. What users don't realize is that a major source of devotion to these platforms is dopamine, a brain chemical associated with attraction, pleasure, and addiction. By encouraging the release of dopamine, technology wizards foster brain circuits that propel users to get the next "fix."
Dopamine is also active in smart phone use. One study found the average user checks his or her phone 80 times a day, and the pings that signal new texts or emails are designed to drive this behavior. Seeing new "stuff" generates its own little shot of behavior-reinforcing dopamine.
Persuading people to buy things is as old as markets. What's new is the use of neuroscience. Facebook's new Center for Marketing Science Innovation, for example, will conduct neuroscience research to find better ways for advertisers, brands, and tech firms (like itself) to succeed in shaping user decisions. EEGs (to study brain signals), functional MRIs (to see what parts of the brain react to specific stimuli), eye tracking, and biometrics are tools that allow neuroscience marketers to peer, literally, into people's brains.
This effort goes beyond selling consumer products. In a September 2004 experiment, young voters in the Northeast were divided into two groups. The control group was asked whether they planned to vote for Kerry or Bush for president. They preferred Kerry, 4 to1. The experimental group was first "primed" with a questionnaire seeking thoughts on death and their own burial. They chose Bush by a 2 to 1 margin. Many other experiments confirm that when the brain is primed about death, people tend to favor the political right.
Instead of traditional surveys or focus groups, political neuroconsultants are now monitoring brain EEGs to see how people react, second by second, to a political ad or candidate video. The Emotion Research Lab, with offices in the U.S., Spain, and Mexico, uses neuroscience to study the performance of a politician in a debate, interview or speech. With its feedback, a candidate knows what words or gestures provoke negative reactions and can revise and rehearse to produce a more positive emotional response.
Behind the use of neuroscience lies the understanding that decision making is more subconscious and emotional than we think. Frontline players don't know that dopamine is guiding their avid commitment to playing, nor do voters recognize when and how their emotions are being shaped. Neuroscience also reveals that the emotional centers of our brain fire first, with the logical processing ones coming alive milliseconds later. In short, reason's work may often be to justify the decisions emotion has already made.
Twitter users are unaware, for example, that fake stories are re-tweeted quickly, reaching people six times faster than true ones. Such stories are often written to generate anger and disgust, so the authors of this study of 2006-2016 tweets suggest that faster retweeting may be the result of exciting the amygdala, the brain's emotional center. Facebook users don't know their moods are shaped by the posts they see.
Facebook, in a study for which it later apologized, deliberately tweaked users' feeds and found that seeing more positive posts led people to post more positive ones, and vice versa.
Admittedly, the phrase "neuromanipulation" acts like all use of neuroscience is unethical and damaging, which is not the case. But reason can be compromised by those using neuroscience for their private or political gain. All of us should learn to spot and counter those practices. Schools should teach young people how to do so. Professional and political organizations, as well as technology, media, and marketing firms, should establish codes of ethics for neuroconsultants and sanction infractions. Public and non-profit watchdogs should monitor adherence and publicize abuses.
This is both a private and public issue. We should be free of subconscious manipulation that compromises our wallets and wellness. We should also be guided in exercising our political rights by reason. As Thomas Jefferson once put it, we may "tolerate any error, so long as reason is left free to combat it." But what if it isn't?
Photo Credit: Tim Sheerman-Chase
