Pages

Tuesday, July 30, 2013

Here Come the Thought Police

White House Creates “Nudge Squad” To Get Americans To Behave How They See Fit…

Via Fox News:
The federal government is hiring what it calls a “Behavioral Insights Team” that will look for ways to subtly influence people’s behavior, according to a document describing the program obtained by FoxNews.com. Critics warn there could be unintended consequences to such policies, while supporters say the team could make government and society more efficient.
While the program is still in its early stages, the document shows the White House is already working on such projects with almost a dozen federal departments and agencies including the Department of Health and Human Services and the Department of Agriculture.
“Behavioral sciences can be used to help design public policies that work better, cost less, and help people to achieve their goals,” reads the government document describing the program, which goes on to call for applicants to apply for positions on the team.
The document was emailed by Maya Shankar, a White House senior adviser on social and behavioral sciences, to a university professor with the request that it be distributed to people interested in joining the team. The idea is that the team would “experiment” with various techniques, with the goal of tweaking behavior so people do everything from saving more for retirement to saving more in energy costs.

 

5 comments:

  1. Oh, and time to re-read Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451. I did so a few months ago. Yep, that's where we're headed now.

    ReplyDelete
  2. The government wants to use behavioral techniques to change the way people handle their finances?

    Yeah, that's not right.

    ReplyDelete
  3. IN that case I'm going to blow it all on porno, guns and the tea party

    ReplyDelete
  4. I'm bitterly clinging to my penis and porn.

    ReplyDelete