The Role of Manipulation in our Lives

 Manipulation: What It Is, Why It's Bad, What To Do About It by Cass R. Sunstein

Manipulation book cover

Author and scholar Cass R. Sunstein

Many thanks to Cambridge University Press and NetGalley for providing me with an advanced copy of esteemed Harvard scholar and writer Cass R. Sunstein’s new and timely book Manipulation: What It Is, Why It’s Bad, What To Do About It. Sunstein, who has worked examined legal and behavioral issues in other books, examines all of the ways that we encounter manipulation in our daily lives. I found the book to be fascinating since manipulative means often attract our emotions, or our system 1 level of responding, which don’t allow much time for reflection or consideration about the implications or ramifications of any responses. According to Sunstein, this is the primary goal of manipulators and why manipulation is problematic in most cases. According to Sunstein, manipulation does not consider our agency or reflective ability. It merely assumes that we are likely to emotionally respond without any thought or consideration to consequences. Furthermore, many manipulators use deceitful or bad faith tactics that also trigger our System 1 responses, and don’t allow for much research or further learning about the topic. As a result, manipulators tend to have a dim view of those they seek to manipulate, assuming they will not seek out additional information or challenge their claims. Sunstein uses many examples in various fields including work, advertising, technology, and politics, among others. I found these examples to be revealing and compelling.

I appreciated Sunstein’s approach to this topic. It’s one that he’s spent time before working on, specifically with nudging and behavior, a topic he co-authored a book with Nobel winning economist Richard Thaler, and decision making and judgement, another topic he co-authored a book with another Nobel laureate, Daniel Kahneman. Sunstein brings a wealth of knowledge and experience with this topic, and aptly defines manipulation not only with examples and subtypes, but also by differentiating the topic from other forms of deceptive practice including lying and coercion. With coercion specifically, Sunstein argues that coercion is often thought of as more forceful than manipulation, but actually people have a choice with coercion. There is often a consequence to follow, and the severity of the consequence often informs people’s decisions to comply with the coercion. This is not the same case with manipulation, which seeks to appeal more to our emotions, or system 1 responses, rendering us unlikely to question or challenge the information. Thus, with manipulation, the approach is to remove choice and thinking, taking away our agency and dignity, and subjecting us to the desires of the manipulator. Nevertheless, Sunstein presents the challenges to regulating manipulation since it is a form of speech and outlawing it would, in turn, become not only difficult, but would also take away other freedoms of expression.

One of the points I found most fascinating was how often we encounter manipulation, but with a more positive, or as Sunstein mentions, a welfarist approach. Although Sunstein spends time exploring the ways that various approaches to manipulation occur and drain time and money from us, he also notes that frequently governments and public health campaigns apply manipulative methods to promote positive health or at least deter behaviors that are unhealthy. While advertising companies in the past have used manipulation to promote cigarettes and alcohol, often showing happy, healthy, and young people enjoying themselves, more recent attempts to deter smoking and excessive drinking have aimed to use manipulative practices to deter smoking. The examples of anti-smoking campaigns are particularly graphic but use manipulation for a good. Sunstein explains why these examples would make outlawing manipulation problematic.  The other interesting aspect of manipulation is the different types of manipulation, and how technology is factoring into making manipulation much easier today. One form of manipulation that Sunstein discusses is sludge, which is basically like onerous bureaucratic impediments that are a means to slow people down to limit them from accessing any resources. While reading this, I thought about the show Nathan For You, and one episode where Nathan develops a rebate plan to boost a gas station’s business. He makes the process of obtaining the rebate so difficult and time consuming that most of the applicants drop out. Nathan applies an approach that Sunstein explores as manipulative that many other businesses, organizations, and governments employ to deter access to resources and goods.  

 

Sunstein notes that FAFSA, the federal student aid program’s application was often viewed as a type of sludge, making it difficult for students to access aid, assuming that many would give up. Sunstein documents other examples of sludge in the world, and how it impacts our lives. Other examples are about ending free trials, and how challenging it can be to sometimes escape any kind of free trial without taking an incredible amount of time and effort. He cites examples of Serious XM radio, and how cancelling a subscription often involves talking to a live human, which can involve waiting for a lengthy time on the phone. I didn’t realize that the Biden administration actually enacted legislation to counter these kinds of practices, recognizing that sludge costs people time and money, and as a result, people need easier methods to cancel subscriptions and not be the targets of deceptive manipulation.

The most compelling cases, on the other hand, dealt with technology and how technology enables manipulators to employ new and more dangerous forms of manipulation. He cites examples of egregious  manipulation like the Trump campaign’s reelection scheme to opt donors into recurring payments, assuming that they would not read the fine print or check their accounts to see the money they lost. Maybe it’s not surprising, but it demonstrates how Sunstein’s idea that manipulators devalue their targets and don’t consider their agency and dignity. Sunstein also touches on deep fakes and how these forms of manipulated video (and audio) can be so compelling that they don’t allow us to access our System 2 processing, where we consider and reflect on the information we are taking in. This is especially important as younger children are encountering more and more video media, and are not always taught to question or consider what they encounter online. Furthermore, with the current administration employing these kinds of manipulative practices, it’s more important that people are made aware of them and develop tools and practices to counter and question the information that’s being spewed on a regular basis. Sunstein ends the book by examining AI, and noting how AI can be used for both manipulative practices, but also as a tool to learn more about options and choice engines. I’m glad to see that he doesn’t completely dismiss AI as manipulative, but recognizes that any kind of algorithm may have the potential to produce biased results that might target our system 1 responses. Nevertheless, he also notes that AI has the potential to quickly scan through information that would take most humans hours and hours, enabling them to save more time and focus to make better informed decisions, ultimately to prevent manipulation.

Although the book is important and fascinating, it is a little challenging to read, and I know that I will need to revisit the topics. Manipulation has ideas and examples that affect our lives in different respects from advertising and large purchases, to retirement planning and government policies. Although the book may not be for everyone, Sunstein present clear and relevant examples that highlight the various ways that manipulation is used to impact behavior. While not always bad, manipulation does entail practices that seek to bypass rational decision-making and have us react. Although this is sometimes necessary in promoting public health, we can also see how it is used for other ends. Thus, this is an important read with significant implications. This book has made me more conscious of the information and media I encounter, and how I can carefully consider it before responding or reacting.