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Okay, this is going to be incredibly dense with resources, and long (just a warning that this ain't something to dive into while you're waiting for your pasta to cook. And now you know what I do while cooking these days).
We've talked about social media metadata - your psych profile - and why it wasn't just a few points of data that Cambridge Analytica stole for Donald Trump. https://twitter.com/i/moments/984259305732964352
We've talked about how they then used that data https://twitter.com/i/moments/978694936429293570
We've talked about how it was more subtly weaponized against the left https://twitter.com/i/moments/978819806089670656
But we haven't talked about WHY these techniques work. I'm hearing the narrative "microtargeting/psychological profiling is snake oil." Well, that's bullshit. If that were true, why would they even bother to steal all our metadata?
FB's whole business model is dependent on this "snake oil." Businesses wouldn't have billions in social media ad spend if it weren't effective.
Let's just start with social media and mental effect in general. Studies show that Facebook/social media use have numerous bad effects on our mental and physical health https://www.forbes.com/sites/alicegwalton/2017/06/30/a-run-down-of-social-medias-effects-on-our-mental-health/#7a0ca9d52e5a
Facebook itself did experiments and research on how our emotions are affected on their platform. Their finding: moods are contagious. https://www.nytimes.com/2014/06/30/technology/facebook-tinkers-with-users-emotions-in-news-feed-experiment-stirring-outcry.html
Okay, now let's dive into the nitty gritty of how this stuff works. Let's talk about the autonomic (involuntary) response + the lizard brain.
Your autonomic nervous system is your involuntary nervous system: your breathing, brain function, and many other things. It's also the system that becomes activated when you perceive danger: the "fight or flight" response. https://www.health.harvard.edu/staying-healthy/understanding-the-stress-response
The part of your brain that initiates fight or flight is called the reptilian brain. This part also controls feelings of *territoriality and competitiveness.*
Marketers are well aware of the reptilian brain. Here are a few articles outlining how to appeal to the reptilian brain (they also fully acknowledge that one way of doing it is scaring people) https://www.forbes.com/forbes/2006/0703/044.html#52c13524511d
Musicians deal with their reptilian brain/fight or flight response extensively: one form of it is stage fright. If you've ever performed, or get nervous speaking, or played sports, you probably know what I'm talking about.
Your mouth might get dry, your hands might shake. You might start to sweat, or have butterflies in your stomach.
During my music training, we spent a lot of time learning to combat this. One teacher I had made us run up and down stairs, and then train ourselves to lower our heart rate and slow our breathing before we played.
When experiencing stage fright, your lizard brain thinks you're in danger when you're actually not. Your body starts to react as though you may need to defend yourself, or to escape. It floods with adrenaline in preparation, causing the shaking hands, etc.
The thing with performing and stage fright, though, is that you're aware that what you're experiencing has a definite beginning and end. As soon as you finish that audition, play your solo, or give your talk, you'll be done and feel normal again.
And knowing there's a beginning and end to the stage fright allows you to proceed even though you're terrified.
Well, what if you didn't know when it might end? When the reptilian brain is engaged, information can't reach the frontal cortex of the brain, where logical thinking occurs. What if your reptilian brain is engaged constantly, for months, or even years?
What if you were a target of psychological warfare?
Let's take a look at some of the actual online content surrounding this administration.
Before you look at this and say "well, this is so obvious," you likely weren't part of the custom audience. Also, the brain processes images much, much faster than it does text. https://instapage.com/blog/emotional-marketing
And, remember: they had STOLEN psychological profiles of just about every American. They had everything we've done, said or felt on Facebook. They knew *exactly* who to target, and *how.*
Keeping in mind everything we've covered - reptilian brain, fight or flight, how the brain processes imagery vs. text - here's what Trump + his mercenaries have been up to: https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/technology/russian-ads-now-publicly-released-show-sophistication-of-influence-campaign/2017/11/01/d26aead2-bf1b-11e7-8444-a0d4f04b89eb_story.html?utm_term=.593e31ac3f1a
You probably remember this from the NRA:
And, look what Cambridge Analytica did in Nigeria:
https://amp.theguardian.com/uk-news/2018/apr/04/cambridge-analytica-used-violent-video-to-try-to-influence-nigerian-election?CMP=share_btn_tw&__twitter_impression=true
https://amp.theguardian.com/uk-news/2018/apr/04/cambridge-analytica-used-violent-video-to-try-to-influence-nigerian-election?CMP=share_btn_tw&__twitter_impression=true
Remember how I said Trump talks to his Facebook custom audience? Here's an article about how he drills right into the reptilian brain: https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/positively-media/201610/clinton-vs-trump-talking-the-reptilian-brain
More Trump talking to the reptilian brain: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2015/11/22/trump-retweeted-a-very-wrong-set-of-numbers-on-race-and-murder/?utm_term=.97d0973a89bd
They tested his slogans and talking points https://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/cambridge-analytica-facebook-and-the-revelations-of-open-secrets
Let’s also talk about social proof and the reptilian brain—another thing marketers love. Social proof is basically people saying how they feel about something, and others being influenced to feel or act the same way (or at least pretend to). https://blog.kissmetrics.com/social-proof/
Along the same lines of social proof is our hard-wired desire to belong, thanks to mirror neurons. https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-mirror-neuron-revolut/
Now consider that not only were people being bombarded non-stop with Trump’s rhetoric + matching content, but there was also an army of trolls + bot nets running support. http://time.com/4783932/inside-russia-social-media-war-america/
So if somehow someone managed to get out of their reptilian brain and start using logic, bots and trolls took care of that. They made it seem like many people agreed-strongly—with this content. https://www.pbs.org/newshour/science/inside-the-study-showing-conservatives-retweeted-russian-trolls-30-times-more-often-than-liberals
And, if someone disagreed or tried to speak up, they were quickly shamed, drowned out and silenced. http://time.com/4783932/inside-russia-social-media-war-america/
And guess what - we haven't even gotten to their main source of news: http://money.cnn.com/2018/03/20/media/fox-news-ralph-peters-propaganda-machine/index.html
To be clear: this wasn't a matter of buying a few ads. It was psychological warfare. The purposeful terrorizing of populations.
People are mystified at how Trump supporters can't see the forest for the trees. Well, they were brainwashed, and are still being brainwashed. They're genuinely afraid (you've seen the crying nazis), and paranoid.
(This is NOT a free pass for them. At all.)
(This is NOT a free pass for them. At all.)
In summary: this is STILL a BFD. This shit works; if it didn't, they wouldn't have taken the risk and invested billions of dollars in this operation. The way to claw our way out of this pit is with awareness, critical thinking, compassion and remembering our shared humanity.
Here's something to help you remember: https://twitter.com/i/moments/978798240375214080
Finally, a resource I'd highly recommend is social scientist Brene Brown (you've probably heard of her). She did an amazing hour on 1A last year - when you have a moment, please listen to her interview. || END || https://the1a.org/shows/2017-09-12/brene-brown-the-quest-for-true-belonging-and-the-courage-to-stand-alone
