Psyops Methodology: Fear-nudging & FORCES

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Via Zero Hedge. Special thanks to Robert Malone. From: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2352250X24000575

During the COVID crisis, nudging emerged as one of the primary psyops tools used by globalists, governments, NGOs, and “security” (intelligence) forces against us ordinary folk.

Internet users are inundated with attempts to persuade, including digital nudges like defaults, friction, and reinforcement.

When these nudges fail to be transparent, optional, and beneficial, they can become 'dark patterns', categorised here under the acronym FORCES (Frame, Obstruct, Ruse, Compel, Entangle, Seduce).

Elsewhere, psychological principles like negativity bias, the curiosity gap, and fluency are exploited to make social content viral, while more covert tactics including astroturfing, meta-nudging, and inoculation are used to manufacture consensus.

The power of these techniques is set to increase in line with technological advances such as predictive algorithms, generative AI, and virtual reality.

Digital nudges can be used for altruistic purposes including protection against manipulation, but behavioural interventions have mixed effects at best.

Tactics of FORCES (Frame, Obstruct, Ruse, Compel, Entangle, Seduce), which are being used by governments, globalists, and NGOs to control populations.

TacticExamples
Frame   
Information is presented in a way that biases choice
  • Extraneous reference prices (e.g., old sale price vs. new sale price)
  • Fake or ambiguous scarcity claims (e.g., low stock, limited time)
  • Fake social proof and parasocial pressure (e.g., high demand label, reviews, endorsements, testimonials)
  • Decoys (i.e., a product added to a set simply to make the others look more attractive)
  • False hierarchies, in which on option is more visually salient than the others
  • Confirmshaming (e.g., ‘No thanks, I don't want to be a better marketer’)
Obstruct   
It is made harder for users to do what they intended to do
  • Roach motel tactics, where it is easy to subscribe or access but hard (or impossible) to leave or logout
  • Roadblocks to actions, like time delays to account deletion
  • Price obfuscation (e.g., prevent pricing comparison, bundling prices, or using intermediate currencies)
  • Adding extra steps; make navigation or privacy policies labyrinthine; hiding information
  • Using a foreign language, complex wording or jargon to inhibit understanding
Ruse   
Users are tricked into making a choice other than what they intended
  • Products being sneaked into the basket, usually due to an obscured opt-out button prior
  • Drip pricing; hidden costs like delivery fees added to basket at the end
  • Ads with a delayed appearance so that users accidently click on them when they meant to click something else
  • Disguised ads (e.g., that look like a download button)
  • Ambiguous information causing users to get a different outcome to what they expected
  • Bait and switch, where the user sets out to do one thing but something else happens instead
  • Trick questions (e.g., a list of checkboxes where the first means opt-out and the second means opt-in)
  • Distraction, e.g., focusing attention on one element to distract from a small opt-out checkbox
  • Sponsored adverts disguised as normal content
Compel   
Users are forced to do something they may not have wanted to do
  • Forced continuity, like automatically charging a credit card once a free trial comes to an end
  • Grinding, where gamers are forced to repeat the same process in order to secure game elements like badges
  • Forced registration to use a website, and pay-to-play
  • Nagging (e.g., to buy the premium version of a service)
  • Privacy Zuckering and Contact Zuckering, wherein users are tricked into sharing data or address book contacts
  • Defaults and pre-selected options
  • Playing by appointment (users are forced to use a service at specific times lest they lose advantages or achievements)
Entangle   
Users are kept occupied for longer than they may have intended
  • Fake notifications (e.g., about content never interacted with) to draw users (back) in
  • Pausing notifications rather than being able to permanently stop them
  • Never-ending autoplay (e.g., a new video plays when the current one is finished)
  • Infinite scroll (i.e., new content continuously loads at the bottom of the feed)
  • Casino pull-to-refresh (i.e., users get an animated refresh of content by swiping down)
  • Time fog (e.g., hiding the smartphone clock so the amount of time spent in the app is not ‘felt’)
Seduce   
Users are engaged emotionally rather than rationally
  • Highly emotive language or imagery; cuteness
  • Pressured selling (e.g., under time pressure)
  • Bamboozlement: Choice overload or information overload
  • Guilty pleasures (i.e., personalised suggestions that prey on individual vulnerabilities)

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An example from Uptake of COVID-19 vaccines among healthcare workers and the effect of nudging interventions: A mixed methods study follows.

Methods

We conducted an explanatory sequential designed observational mixed-methods study, including quantitative and qualitative sections consecutively in two different pandemic hospitals between 15 September 2021 and 1 April 2022. The characteristics of vaccinated and unvaccinated (vaccination of healthcare workers) HCWs were compared.

The vaccine hesitancy scales were applied, and the effect of nudging, such as mandatory PCR and education, were evaluated. In-depth interviews were performed to investigate the COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy among HCWs according to Health Belief Model.

Results

...After the mandatory weekly PCR request nudge, 83.33 % (130/156) vaccine-hesitant HCWs were vaccinated, and 8.3 % (13/156) after the small group seminars and mandatory PCR every two days.

Conclusions

The nudging interventions such as mandatory PCR testing and small group seminars helped raise the rate of COVID-19 vaccination; the most effective one is mandatory PCR.

The truth is that “the machine” (the system) did this to us. This goes beyond some small unethical breach, as using PCR testing to harass and cause physical discomfort of the unvaccinated was performed worldwide. Hence, fear nudging that applied physical discomfort and even pain was performed on millions of people worldwide.

The number of peer-reviewed papers documenting and encouraging the use of dark nudges is astounding. Often, these organizations don’t even know the name of this technique - they just do it because it is effective.

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