“Political motives” have become “the major driving force behind most science communication”
Study finds that “science communications” has routinely devolved into propaganda messaging intended to persuade targets to adopt someone’s agenda.
Updated: How airlines use intimidation to persuade you to spend more money
Six months ago, I wrote about airlines’ new policies of dividing cabins into as many as 9 different tiers or classes of customers, creating a sense of peer pressure between the haves and have-nots. Now, researchers say this passenger hierarchy appears to lead to more in flight aggression by passengers.
Did this collision occur because the driver was texting? No.
You can tell this is an Internet meme that isn’t true because Corvettes have never had a back seat – 2 seats in front, that’s all.
“Facebook targets ads based on race and gender stereotypes: Study”
Facebook continues to claim they oppose discrimination in all forms, in spite of mountains of evidence showing they continue to discriminate based on age, gender and other attributes in their ad platform.
Media works to make you outraged, all the time
Social media promoters know that “outrage” leads to more views. That’s why conspiracy theories and other outrageous content flourish on social media – because they are watched.
U.S. government accuses Facebook of enabling discrimination in housing
Facebook’s advertising tools enabled advertising to target potential housing customers by “race, religion, familial status, disability” in order to exclude members of protected classes from renting or buying property.
Nice explanation of how propaganda messaging works
“A good cause makes a lie easier to buy”. This is why many propaganda campaigns use themes such as “for the children” – even though their claims are exaggerated or not true. The target buys the propaganda message since its for a good cause.
Fear is a powerful motivator in propaganda messaging: How its used to sell third party solar
Third party companies offer to install solar PV arrays on your home and promise to save you money on your monthly electric utility costs. Bloomberg found they use a mix of false assertions, lies, cherry picking and fear as sales methods, to persuade homeowners to sign up and lease the solar PV system for decades. Over time, the lease costs increase such that the homeowner spends far more in the future, while the third party company collects large government subsidies. Few homeowners understand what they got in to. When they go to sell their home, the lease is transferred to the buyer – in effect, TPO solar PV arrays become a dead weight on the home’s future sales potential, particularly to informed buyers who understand the game.
Ouch: The goal of news reporting is to “reinforce the prejudices of your readers”
Journalism today: “If you want your story to be well placed and if you want to be professionally rewarded, you have to generate page views — you have to incite social media. The way to do that is to reinforce the prejudices of your readers.”
Companies Game Their Glassdoor Ratings
Glassdoor is a web site where workers write reviews of their employer and work environment. Not surprisingly, many companies are gaming the system, flooding it with 5-star reviews.