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Silicon Prison: How Technology is Building a Sanitised Society
Slides from my talk at SAScon BETA 2014 where I spoke about how technology and psychology can combine to manipulate us in to behaving like corporations and governments want us to.
Slides from my talk at SAScon BETA 2014 where I spoke about how technology and psychology can combine to manipulate us in to behaving like corporations and governments want us to.
Silicon Prison: How Technology is Building a Sanitised Society
1.
POLEMIC
D I G I T A L
Silicon Prison
How Technology is Building
a Sanitised World
Barry Adams
Polemic Digital
December 2014
2.
POLEMIC
D I G I T A L
About Barry Adams
• Freelance SEO consultant at Polemic Digital
• Dutch (yes, really)
• Twitter ranter: @badams
• Lecturer on SEO, UX & Digital Strategy
• Editor & blogger for StateofDigital.com
• Also blogs at PolemicDigital.com
3.
A Brief Psychology Lesson
POLEMIC
D I G I T A L
4.
POLEMIC
D I G I T A L
Fallacies of the Mind
Actor–observer bias
Ambiguity effect
Anchoring / focalism
Attentional bias
Availability cascade
Availability heuristic
Backfire effect
Bandwagon effect
Base rate fallacy
Belief bias
Bias blind spot
Bizarreness effect
Change bias
Cheerleader effect
Childhood amnesia
Choice-supportive bias
Clustering illusion
Confirmation bias
Congruence bias
Conjunction fallacy
Conservatism (Bayesian)
Conservatism / Regressive bias
Consistency bias
Context effect
Contrast effect
Cross-race effect
Cryptomnesia
Curse of knowledge
Decoy effect
Defensive attribution
hypothesis
Denomination effect
Distinction bias
Dunning–Kruger effect
Duration neglect
Egocentric bias
Empathy gap
Endowment effect
Essentialism
Exaggerated expectation
Expectation bias
Extrinsic incentives bias
Fading affect bias
False consensus effect
False memory
Focusing effect
Forer effect / Barnum effect
Framing effect
Frequency illusion
Functional fixedness
Fundamental attribution error
Gambler's fallacy
Generation effect
Google effect
Group attribution error
Halo effect
Hard–easy effect
Hindsight bias
Hostile media effect
Hot-hand fallacy
Humour effect
Hyperbolic discounting
Identifiable victim effect
IKEA effect
Illusion of asymmetric insight
Illusion of control
Illusion of external agency
Illusion of transparency
Illusion of truth effect
Illusion of validity
Illusory correlation
Illusory superiority
Impact bias
Information bias
In-group bias
Insensitivity to sample size
Irrational escalation
Just-world hypothesis
Lag effect
Less-is-better effect
Leveling and Sharpening
Levels-of-processing effect
List-length effect
Loss aversion
Mere exposure effect
Misinformation effect
Modality effect
Money illusion
Mood-congruent memory bias
Moral credential effect
Moral luck
Naïve cynicism
Naïve realism
Negativity bias
Negativity effect
Neglect of probability
Next-in-line effect
Normalcy bias
Not invented here
Observation selection bias
Observer-expectancy effect
Omission bias
Optimism bias
Ostrich effect
Outcome bias
Outgroup homogeneity bias
Overconfidence effect
Pareidolia
Part-list cueing effect
Peak–end rule
Peltzman effect
Persistence
Pessimism bias
Picture superiority effect
Planning fallacy
Positivity effect
Post-purchase rationalization
Primacy effect
Recency effect
Serial position effect
Pro-innovation bias
Processing difficulty effect
Projection bias
Pseudocertainty effect
Reactance
Reactive devaluation
Recency illusion
Reminiscence bump
Restraint bias
Rhyme as reason effect
Rosy retrospection
Selective perception
Self-relevance effect
Self-serving bias
Semmelweis reflex
Shared information bias
Social comparison bias
Social desirability bias
Source confusion
Spacing effect
Spotlight effect
Status quo bias
Stereotypical bias
Stereotyping
Subadditivity effect
Subjective validation
Suffix effect
Suggestibility
Survivorship bias
System justification
Telescoping effect
Testing effect
Time-saving bias
Tip of the tongue phenomenon
Trait ascription bias
Ultimate attribution error
Unit bias
Verbatim effect
Von Restorff effect
Well travelled road effect
Worse-than-average effect
Zeigarnik effect
Zero-risk bias
Zero-sum heuristic
5.
POLEMIC
D I G I T A L
Consumer Decision Making
Need
Awareness
Information
Search
Evaluating
Alternatives
Purchase
Decision
Post
Purchase
6.
POLEMIC
D I G I T A L
Consumer Decision Making
Need
Awareness
Information
Search
Evaluating
Alternatives
Purchase
Decision
Post
Purchase
7.
POLEMIC
D I G I T A L
The Irrational Consumer
Availability Bias
Anchoring Effect
Mere Exposure Effect
Habituation and Defaults
Social Contagion
Hyperbolic Discounting
Post-Purchase Rationalization
…
8.
Subconscious Decision Making
POLEMIC
D I G I T A L
9.
Subconscious Decision Making
POLEMIC
D I G I T A L
Most of our decisions are made by our
subconscious mind.
Our conscious mind claims credit after the
decision has been made.
12.
POLEMIC
D I G I T A L
Exposure Affects Behaviour
The Mere Exposure Effect;
• We develop a preference for things we are
exposed to often.
• This exposure does not need to be conscious.
13.
POLEMIC
D I G I T A L
Words Affect Behaviour
‘Slow Walking’ study:
• Participants are asked to create sentences from
‘random’ words
• Participants’ walking speed is measured as they
leave the lab.
Those participants that are exposed to words
associated with old age (‘elderly’, ‘wrinkles’,
‘geriatric’, etc) show a significantly slower
walking pace.
14.
Environment Affects Behaviour
POLEMIC
D I G I T A L
When your polling booth is in a school,
you are more likely to vote in favour of
increased education spending.
Exposure to pictures of libraries makes
you speak in quieter tones.
When you eat in self-service restaurants
and can smell cleaning products, you
keep your own table tidier.
16.
POLEMIC
D I G I T A L
We Are Not In Control
• Our decisions are subconscious, irrational
and emotional.
• Our minds are easily influenced.
• We are not aware of being manipulated;
Priming bypasses the conscious mind and affects
our subconscious directly.
24.
POLEMIC
D I G I T A L
Algorithmic Regulation
“Algorithmic regulation a system of governance
where data collected from citizens, via their smart
devices and computers, are used for more
efficiency in organizing human life as a collective.”
25.
POLEMIC
D I G I T A L
Apple Patent No. 8706143
Sensors in your car;
Is the car moving?
Is the person driving using the iPhone?
26.
POLEMIC
D I G I T A L
“We know everyone who
breaks the law, we know
when you're doing it. We have
GPS in your car, so we know
what you're doing.”
“By the way, we don't supply
that data to anyone.”
Jim Farley
CMO, Ford
27.
POLEMIC
D I G I T A L
‘Safeguard Germ Alarm’
Sensors in public toilets;
Are you leaving the toilet without washing your
hands?
28.
Smart shopping trollies that tell you what you're
buying and nudge you (emoticons, voice) to buy
healthier food.
POLEMIC
D I G I T A L
(Or buy food the supermarkets want you to buy)
31.
POLEMIC
D I G I T A L
Everything is Measurable
• Sensors to measure everything you do and
consume;
Are you eating healthily?
Are you drinking responsibly?
Are you active enough?
• ‘Nudges’ to alter your behaviour positively.
• Repercussions if you don’t;
Increased insurance premiums.
Reduced access to healthcare & government services.
32.
POLEMIC
D I G I T A L
Current Goverment Ideas
Linking of benefits to gym visits.
Tax rebates if you give up smoking, have a
healthy blood sugar, and keep weight off.
Automated tax avoidance detection: compare tax
returns to spending patterns.
NHS queuing dependent on healthy lifestyle.
33.
POLEMIC
D I G I T A L
Who is Responsible?
• All the blame for ‘bad’ behaviour is put firmly on
the consumer.
• But what about the corporations?
Subconscious nudging and priming are already being
used to make us buy stuff that’s bad for us.
Cheap lifestyle options are usually the bad ones.
34.
POLEMIC
D I G I T A L
Consumer Regulation
Instead of regulating companies, ‘algorithmic
regulation’ will regulate consumers.
A shift of the burden of good behaviour from
businesses to consumers.
35.
Punishing the Disenfranchised
• Only the well-off can afford the lifestyle to
prevent extra financial burdens.
• What happens when not tracking your lifestyle
becomes taxable?
POLEMIC
D I G I T A L
You have nothing to hide, right?
36.
POLEMIC
D I G I T A L
Where Things Are Headed
Governments want us to behave ‘properly’.
Corporations want us to buy their shit.
What we want is irrelevant can be changed.
37.
POLEMIC
D I G I T A L
Behavioural Conditioning