Patrick Fagan is a lecturer, author, and public speaker, and consults for brands and political campaigns around the world.
He was the lead behavioural scientist at the now-infamous Cambridge Analytica.
Cambridge Analytica was a British political consulting firm that specialized in data analysis and strategic communication.
The company had obtained personal data from approximately 87 million Facebook users through a third-party app called “This Is Your Digital Life.” The app, developed by Aleksandr Kogan, a Cambridge University researcher, collected users’ data as well as data from their Facebook friends. This massive data set was then used to create highly targeted political advertising during the 2016 US presidential election and the UK’s Brexit referendum.
The data was allegedly used to build psychological profiles of voters, enabling targeted advertising that aimed to influence their political opinions and voting behavior.
Nudge Theory is a psychological concept that explores how small changes in the way choices are presented can have a profound effect on our behaviour.
For example, by making subtle changes in the way choices are presented, we can influence people’s decisions without restricting their freedom or resorting to coercion.
And they won’t notice.
Nudges can be thought of as gentle pushes in a particular direction, designed to guide individuals towards making choices.
At the core of Nudge Theory lies the concept of “choice architecture” which refers to the way choices are structured and presented to individuals. In other words, the way information is framed, the order in which options are presented, and the context in which decisions are made can significantly impact our choices.
This kind of psychological manipulation has found its way into various aspects of our lives, often without us even realising it.
Governments and media have used nudges to great success. Simply consider the anti-Russia (or anti-China) sentiment in the West. Consider how, for instance, Hollywood has been a US government mouthpiece for American exceptionalism and a tool for shaping opinion.
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