Adam Curtis: From Pigeon to Superman and Back Again (David Cameron follows Skinner!)

[muriel_volestrangler]

No, not that Skinner - B.F. Skinner.

Adam Curtis made the documentaries The Power of Nightmares, The Century of the Self, and more. This is his BBC blog.

I am fascinated by the group David Cameron has set up in No.10, called The Behavioural Insights Unit. I think it is evidence of a massive shift that is just beginning in British politics which will change the way polticians govern and manage the rest of us.
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The Behavioural Insights Team believe the opposite. That in many cases you can't trust the people. That if you let them just follow their desires they will often do things that are bad both for themselves and for society.

This doesn't mean you get rid of the market. Instead governments should find ways to manipulate ordinary peoples' feelings and desires so they "choose" to do the right thing.
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Behaviourism's most famous exponent was an American psychologist called B. F. Skinner who was an idealist and a utopian. He believed that his techniques of behaviour modification could be used to create a completely new kind of world.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/adamcurtis/2010/11/post_1.html

Much, much more at the link - Curtis is trawling the BBC archives for documentaries from past decades that are relevant to today's situations (there's stuff on Afghanistan, the Congo, and more).

A Guardian piece on the Brave New World of the Behavioural Insight Team:

David Cameron's 'nudge unit' aims to improve economic behaviour

A "nudge unit" set up by David Cameron in the Cabinet Office is working on how to use behavioural economics and market signals to persuade citizens to behave in a more socially integrated way.

The unit, formally known as the Behavioural Insight Team, is being run by David Halpern, a former adviser in Tony Blair's strategy unit, and is taking advice from Richard Thaler, the Chicago professor generally recognised as popularising "nudge" theory – the idea that governments can design environments that make it easier for people to choose what is best for themselves and society.

Thaler was in London for three days this week advising ministers, and in a speech urged the government to adopt longer term horizons. The deputy prime minister, Nick Clegg, said he believed the unit could change the way citizens think.
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Thaler has focused on how to nurture an individual's better instincts, or how to use nudge methods to persuade people, for instance, to save for retirement or hold back on excessive consumption.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2010/sep/09/cameron-nudge-unit-economic-behaviour