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