My takeaway from social psych was that it was far easier and cheaper to convince 2 ignorant people than it was to change 1 educated person's mind.
Which boils majority democracy down to the median level of education.
Re:The boiling frog of digital freedom
by ImPostingOnHN on Sunday September 03, 2023 @12:22PM
(#37371644)
considering technology is evolving faster than humans, using technology to exploit the unchangeable stupidity of humans seems like the winning move
Psychology is a science that studies human behavior, and like all sciences it works mostly. As a result, human minds can be easily hacked by those with the motivation to do so. Psychological science can be employed, things like A/B testing are very effective with enough data, which our digital systems easily provide. Ads are the wholesome version of that, because they are overt. We know the ads are trying to change the way we think and act. Corporate news is an example of the less wholesome side of using psychological science against humans. The humans aren’t to blame. Humans are animals and easy to hack, and our economy is largely, mostly I’d say, based on people hacking/behavioral engineering.