Governments are actively using behavioral science to influence what you choose and believe...
Nudge units – Propaganda teams that strongly influence you to take specific actions and positions
Ever wonder why questions and forms are built a certain way? Or why certain messages are placed in certain locations? Probably not, but you should! Governments have been utilizing propaganda methodologies called Nudge Theory via Nudge Units that try to get you to make certain decisions they feel is “best for you”.
Cool or not? 😎 Let’s dive in.
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Official Name
Nudge units – Propaganda teams that strongly influence you to take specific actions and positions
Conspiracy Description
While it’s certainly not MKULTRA level manipulation, it’s still a form of manipulation on large groups of citizens without their knowledge. Governments in the US, UK, Germany, Japan and other countries have been utilizing behavioral science techniques to nudge your thinking and choices in specific directions. This often happens without the person’s knowledge.
Nudge units derive from Nudge Theory. Here’s the definition of a nudge from Nudge Theory:
A nudge, as we will use the term, is any aspect of the choice architecture that alters people's behavior in a predictable way without forbidding any options or significantly changing their economic incentives.
Basically, it’s a nicer way to get people to do what you want while burying other options out of sight. But don’t worry, the governments promise nudge units are for your safety and best interests! After all, big brother knows best when it comes to your personal choices! Rather than letting you see the positive and negatives of a decision and the other decisions available, they’ll guide you towards making a specific decision.
Let’s dive deeper.
The Details
Behavioral science has been in and out of government for decades. It bounces between being the next big thing and a useless pandora’s box. Nudge units are the latest madness within behavioral science, giving birth to several government organizations across the globe in the past two decades.
Here’s a list of various organizations around the globe acting as nudge units:
Behavioural Insights Team – UK – https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/behavioural-insights-team
Social and Behavioral Sciences Team (SBST) – US - https://sbst.gov/
Behavioural Insights Program – New South Wales, Australia - https://www.dpc.nsw.gov.au/programs-and-services/behavioural-insights/
Nudge Unit of Japan – Japan - http://www.env.go.jp/en/headline/2314.html
The Nudge Unit - University of Pennsylvania - https://nudgeunit.upenn.edu/
We’ve looked into each of these units and none actively sought to reduce citizens’ reliance on government, nor sought to reduce the size and scope of government. Nudge Units were primarily self-serving for the governments, increasing government spending and participation in state-sponsored activities. This doesn’t sound like it’s matching the alleged goals of the programs, which is to increase individual well-being, freedom, and choice. Nudge Units actually appear to reduce all of these things by increasing dependence on government funding and service.
What This Means
While nudge units are currently being spun as good things, we know this is naïve outlook. Governments are always pitching their services as “keeping you safe” and “looking out for your best interests”, but rarely seem to actually accomplish those things over the long term. Especially when those governments are simply buying into lobbyists and fringe scientists’ promises of utopian projects.
To put it plainly, Nudge Units and Nudge Theory are propaganda tools. They’re meant to guide you to make specific decisions, believe certain things, and take certain actions. Both government and corporations utilize this propaganda to change society. But it has other implications as well. If nudges get enough people to buy into a certain ideology, those people will then shun those that don’t follow the same ideology. If you question the narrative (or the nudge), all of a sudden, you’re a giant conspiracy theorist and ousted from the discussion.
The writers at True Conspiracies aren’t the only critics of Nudge Units and Nudge Theory. Many highly respected scientists from a wide range of disciplines think this is simply a nicely termed version of psychological manipulation. This is especially the case when it comes to nudging people towards government compliance and accepting government growth/overreach.
One of the defenders of Nudge Units compares them to GPS:
“But Sunstein believes such foes have neglected the concept of “navigability”. It’s a clunky word and, by way of illumination, he cites the example of a GPS device: a tool that “respects people’s ends” and does not “quarrel with their judgement about their preferred destination”. Much like nudge theory, a GPS device navigates the surface without examining the depths beneath.” [newstatesmen.com]
It's a great metaphor, but actually not in the way the author of the quote would believe. In fact it’s quite the opposite of support for Nudge Units since we now know that Google promotes location pins on your route to get you to spend money at certain businesses. And they’ll also modify search results to preference paid business partners of theirs (when you search for coffee, big chains who pay for ads will appear first in search). None of these behaviors in Google Maps’ GPS function seem to benefit the user. In fact, they seem to benefit Google.
This same type of manipulation finds its way into nudges from government units. The Behavioural Insights team in the UK had a project where their nudges increased charitable giving in wills. Sounds great, right? Great for the charities and government. This isn’t in the best interest of an individual at all. It legitimately reduces the amount of money passed on to those the individual cares about most, their family.
The governments around the world don’t limit their nudging to just big ticket legislative items though. The UK has deployed nudge units to persuade Britons to install smart meters, drive less and eat less meat. The most hilarious part of this nudge unit is that the head of the unit is a former environmental journalist and committed vegan. Definitely not a conflict of interest. Maybe next the UK will make a nudge unit for religion and grant the Reverend of the Westboro Baptist Church as the lead.
Apparently, it’s really important to make common citizens spend money on new heat pumps, stick to their little local bubble, and eat specific things in the name of “green”. Why aren’t the wealthy and politicians nudged as well from having private jets and oversized mansions that suck more energy than 10,000 poor people use in a month? Rules for thee but not for me! I guess the rich and powerful don’t get nudged…
Our last note on this topic involves something you may or may not have noticed already. Ever see a topic or phrase pop up in the media seemingly out of nowhere? Do you think it was by coincidence that within the same week, all talking heads across television networks, social media, and print started using the same concept or phrase when talking about a subject? Our suspicions are raised around how this occurs. Is it a nudge being presented to influence culture? We may never know. But since we’re called True Conspiracies, we have to point out that this is pure speculation.
Looking to read more on Nudge Units? A popular book on the Nudge concept is Inside the Nudge Unit: How Small Changes Can Make a Big Difference. Also check out Nudge: Improving Decisions About Health, Wealth, and Happiness.
Other Crazy Stuff
In this section, we like to provide links to other crazy topics we came across while doing research.
UK using nudge theory to push coronavirus compliance
Institute for government talks about the Nudge Unit
Tons of governments (both local and federal) hire out Nudge Unit consultants to do the dirty work for them. This reduces oversight and transparency for citizens to see what is actually being pushed on them.
Large corporations hire Nudge Unit consultants as well - https://bvanudgeunit.com/what-we-do/our-clients/
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