Government's 'psychological strategies' to manipulate unwitting public's behaviour may backfire and lead to long-term damage, experts claim.Failures in the UK's pandemic response are not hard to identify, but on one front the Government's success is undeniable: persuading a fearful nation to stay locked indoors for much of the past year.
The daily diet of statistics on deaths, hospitalisations and Covid cases has been so effective that compliance with lockdown has gone far beyond what ministers expected.
But the problem with fear, as one behavioural scientist said on Friday, is that "you can't turn it on and off like a tap".
As the country prepares for the complete end of lockdown in June, there are far-reaching questions about how many people will return to the workplace, or to normality, and the consequences of that for the economy and for physical and mental health.Whether frightening the public was a deliberate - or honest - tactic has become the subject of intense debate, and dozens of psychologists have now accused ministers of using "covert psychological strategies" to manipulate the public's behaviour.
They believe the Government, acting on the advice of behavioural experts, has emphasised the threat from Covid without putting the risks in sufficient context, leaving the country in "a state of heightened anxiety".
They also claim that "inflated fear levels will be responsible for the 'collateral' deaths of many thousands of people with non-Covid illnesses" who are "too frightened to attend hospital".
They are so concerned that the British public has been the subject of a mass experiment in the use of strategies that operate "below their level of awareness" that they have made a formal complaint to their professional body, which will now rule on whether government advisers have been guilty of a breach of ethics.
The Government, and its advisers, deny any such transgression, arguing that they have simply presented the public with the facts about the threat Covid poses, and what they need to do to stay safe.
One of the key pieces of evidence cited by those who have complained about "covert" tactics comes from a document prepared for the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (Sage) at the beginning of the pandemic a year ago.
Dated March 22, the paper written by the Scientific Pandemic Influenza Group on Behaviours (SPI-B) stated: "A substantial number of people still do not feel sufficiently personally threatened; it could be that they are reassured by the low death rate in their demographic group, although levels of concern may be rising ... the perceived level of personal threat needs to be increased among those who are complacent, using hard-hitting emotional messaging. To be effective this must also empower people by making clear the actions they can take to reduce the threat."
The same document presented a grid of 14 options for increasing compliance which included "use media to increase sense of personal threat", a tactic which was seen as having a "high" effectiveness though spill-over effects "could be negative".
Some Sage participants now admit to feeling "embarrassed" by such advice.
One regular Sage attendee said: "The British people have been subjected to an unevaluated psychological experiment without being told that is what's happening.
"All of this is about trying to steer behaviour in the direction an elite has decided, rather than deciding if it is the right thing or the ethical thing to do."
The Sage member said SPI-B reports tended not to be "challenged" by Sage because "the core membership of Sage is not very well equipped to evaluate it - there are not other social scientists at the heart of Sage".
They added: "When someone from SPI-B is saying we need to ramp up the fear and keep it ramped up - there wasn't much questioning of that at the beginning and most of the questioning came from external sources, not from within."
Gary Sidley, a retired NHS consultant clinical psychologist, said: "It's as if there is a little industry around pandemic management and it excludes alternative voices.
"There is growing concern within my field about using fear and shame as a driver of behaviour change."
Mr Sidley was so concerned that he and 46 colleagues wrote to the British Psychological Society (BPS) raising "concerns about the activities of government-employed psychologists ... in their mission to gain the public's mass compliance with the ongoing coronavirus restrictions".
The letter added: "Our view is that the use of covert psychological strategies - that operate below the level of people's awareness - to 'nudge' citizens to conform to a contentious and unprecedented public health policy raises profound ethical questions."
The Telegraph has learnt that the BPS's ethics committee will discuss the matter at its next meeting on June 21 - coincidentally the same day all lockdown restrictions are due to end.
Comment: "coincidentally"??
The BPS is a membership organisation and can recommend that members are reprimanded, suspended or expelled. In extreme cases it can raise concerns with the regulator, the Health and Care Professions Council, as a fitness to practise issue.
A spokesman for the BPS said it was "not possible to conclude" from publicly available information "that an intense psychological attack by the Government and orchestrated by Sage has been used to encourage people to comply with government policies regarding Covid-19" but added that the matter would be discussed by the ethics committee and: "It is not appropriate for us to comment on whether the Government's coronavirus response has used contentious public health policies."
SPI-B participant Professor Susan Michie, director of the Centre for Behaviour Change at University College London, told The Telegraph that "persuasion" was one of 10 options put forward for increasing adherence to social distancing in the document, and that it involved giving people "an accurate perception of risk and therefore, for some, increasing the personal threat they perceive, along with being empowered to take actions to reduce the threat".
Not that the SPI-B paper is by any means the only evidence of what critics describe as "covert" methods.
Others cite, for example, the fact that the Government tells the public how many people have died within 28 days of a positive Covid test, but does not include the context of whether deaths are above or below the seasonal norm, and also gives daily figures for hospital admissions, but not how many people have recovered.
Terrifying predictions, which are often presented in such a way that they seem like certainties, have also come from the likes of Chris Whitty, the Chief Medical Officer, and Sir Patrick Vallance, the Chief Scientific Adviser.
In October, ahead of a parliamentary vote on a national lockdown, Sir Patrick warned in a press conference of up to 4,000 deaths per day in the second wave, only for Prof Whitty to admit days later that 1,000 deaths per day was a more likely peak (the second wave peaked at an average of 1,248 daily deaths).
Giving evidence to MPs last month, Prof Whitty and Sir Patrick warned of a fresh spike in cases when schools reopened - which has so far failed to materialise - and suggested another 30,000 people could die (deaths are currently averaging fewer than 50 per day and continue to fall).
A planned relaxation of social restrictions over Christmas was scaled back because of concerns about the emergence of the Kent variant of the virus, which Mr Johnson later said "may be associated with a higher degree of mortality". He was accused of "science by press release" by Dr Susan Hopkins, of Public Health England, who complained that it was too early to know if it was more deadly, and earlier this week a survey involving Dr Hopkins reported that there was no evidence of higher mortality from the Kent strain.
Paul Dolan, Professor of Behavioural Science at the London School of Economics, said: "The idea that you need to increase people's personal threat disproportionately to the threat they face is a problem. It sets a very dangerous precedent - weaponising fear is the phrase that people use.
"Once the fear has been stoked you can't diminish it. It's not like turning a tap on and off - you can't turn the fear off.
"We have focused narrowly on mortality rates and case rates, but I'm pretty certain that the public would understand placing the deaths in the context of five-year averages.
"There has been such a missed opportunity for communicating risk. Rather than just saying a hundred people have died today from Covid, the Government could say what proportion of deaths that accounts for, and whether or not that translates to excess deaths.
Comment: "missed opportunity"?!?!
"That may be a more sustainable conversation to have with the public, rather than 'be scared and stay scared'."
Senior government sources have admitted that levels of compliance went far beyond what they expected in the first lockdown, forcing Boris Johnson to publicly implore workers to get back to the office last summer.
One source said: "There were genuine fears a year ago that we were going to see supermarkets running out of food and a run on the banks. We never considered that people would go even further than the stay at home advice."
Comment: A much more reasonable conclusion is that someone DID consider that people would respond in the way they did to govt. hysterical fearmongering, and that is precisely why they spread the fear.
The same source admitted that the curfew brought in last year was designed to "send a clear signal to young people" that the virus was still dangerous, rather than because of any evidence a curfew would cut infections - which, it could be argued, was another example of behavioural science being used in a "covert" way.
It clearly worked. Last July, a survey carried out by the consultancy firm Kekst CNC found that almost half of respondents, discounting "don't knows", thought Covid had killed 1 per cent of the UK population, equating to more than 600,000 people, when the actual figure at the time was 44,000. Almost a third of respondents thought 6 to 10 per cent, or more, of the population had been killed by Covid, which would mean up to 6.6 million deaths.
While Rishi Sunak has openly discussed his concerns about the effects of lockdown on the economy - effects which will continue beyond June if people remain too afraid to go back to their normal lives - there are other consequences of instilling fear in the public.
Laura Dodsworth, who has spent the past year researching this subject for a forthcoming book called A State of Fear: How the UK Government Weaponised Fear During the Covid-19 Pandemic, said: "I have interviewed people who have been undone by fear, people who have had to be talked down from suicide and people who have developed agoraphobia.
"The problem with fear is that it clouds rational thinking. You become more reliant on government messaging, which makes you more frightened, which makes you even more reliant on their messaging, creating a doom loop. We have forgotten how to analyse risk."
Another "doom loop" may also be at play: the Government puts huge effort into tracking public sentiment to help inform policy, but critics say that creates an inevitable circle in which the public, put in fear by government messaging, favours a cautious approach to lifting lockdown, which the Government then uses to justify keeping the country in lockdown for longer, and so on.
A report by Nottingham University last year suggested that fear could even translate into additional Covid deaths because poor mental health weakens the immune system.
The report said: "It is well known that when negative mood states persist over time they result in the dysregulation of physiological systems involved in the regulation of the immune system. Thus, there exists significant potential for the psychological harm inflicted by the pandemic to translate into physical harm. This could include an increased susceptibility to the virus, worse outcomes if infected, or indeed poorer responses to vaccinations in the future."
Behavioural science is so embedded in government that for the past decade it has taken advice from the Behavioural Insights Team, better known as the "Nudge Unit", which began as part of the Cabinet Office but is now a limited company. A spokesman for the BIT said that "techniques such as 'fear inflation' are not, and have never been, recommended by BIT".
Lord O'Donnell, who was Cabinet secretary at the time the BIT was set up, is among those who believe the Government got the balance wrong in its messaging around Covid.
He said: "Was the messaging subtle enough? We might have concentrated so much on Covid that we have scared people away from going to a hospital.
"Every night you get deaths, cases, patients in hospital, but you don't get the economic costs every night or the indirect consequences like missed cancer tests ... they present this as an entirely medical thing.
"I also hate the phrase social distancing, when what they want is physical distancing. We don't want people to be socially distant, we want social togetherness."
A government spokesman denied covert techniques had been used, adding: "Since the start of the pandemic we have followed the advice of our world-leading scientists and medical experts, taking the right measures at the right time to defeat coronavirus.
"We have set out clear instructions to the British people as our approach and knowledge of the virus has developed, and taken decisive action to delay the spread of the disease, reduce the number of people needing hospital treatment, and ultimately save lives.
"We are clear we want this lockdown to be the last and are easing restrictions in a way that is cautious and guided by the data."
Reader Comments
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The spell of the gypsy is in full force, and billions of minds fall under it. The tactics of these parasites is eons in the making. The latest technology is just a boon.
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What a load of old tosh. They've used fear to effect change in everything from the recycling scam to climate change. Bunch of lying feckers!
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UK is not alone in shaping their population into a fear-whipped nonthinking entity. The U.S. closely parallels the UK.
I have never been more despondent than I am now. Everyone can clearly see that The Orchestrators are winding down the Pandemic. In the U.S., some states, like Florida and Texas, have simply stood up and said that they will no longer participate. Texas, today, continues to see declining rates and numbers in all aspects of Covid measurements. Florida has seen some increases.
They're going to let the sheep out of their cages as fear has been highly and successfully inculcated within a large % of the populations. 44% of Americans support the idea of a Covid passport or vaccination document.
I honestly have no idea of my future except that I cannot live among most people on this planet at this time. The obviously crafted nature of this artificial pandemic is so easily determined by a modicum of reading and thinking that I am at a loss to understand those who have refused to do so. I have a huge distrust of these people because I suspect that many more "fearful" situations will arise in the relatively near future, and once addicted to fear, like all drugs or opiates, the individual feels most at home and comfortable with that style of life.
I just want out.
R.C.
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UK:
EXPLOSIVE: RUMOURS OF 30-YEAR VIRUSECRECY ACT
under the Official Secrets Act, all dealings, papers and memos/emails relating to Covid19 will be sealed under the Thirty Year Rule.
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The idiot proles keep proving that two suckers are born every second!
*OK, I did go there. Well written. Humor is always needed in these darkest of times.
RC
EVIL, COLD, HEARTLESS, MTFS.
(From an Australian site)
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There has been a very long list of "coincidences" over a +10 year time frame, that strongly suggest that this pandemic is a manufactured event... starting with the Rockefeller - Lock Step Manifesto in 2010
"Spars Pandemic 2025-2028" written back in 2017 by the John Hopkins University; Clade X 2018, Event 201 in 2019, ID2020, Microsoft patent WO2020060606 [World Order 2020 *666*]
Fauxi announcing in early Jan 2017 [just before Trumps inauguration],
“And if there’s one message that I want to leave with you today based on my experience … is that there is no question that there will be a challenge the coming administration in the arena of infectious diseases .”
A challenge pertaining to both “chronic infectious diseases” and “a surprise outbreak.”
Australia's Jane Halton [National COVID Coordination Commission & a colorful / connected background] whom was the Australia representative at Event 201, just so happens to be married to Trevor Sutton -> Brett Suttons brother [Vic CHO]
Funnily enough, in Australia (((2015 - Almost like they knew something was going to happen in the near future.))) we had the introduction of the BioSecurity Act.. which also provides full civil and legal immunity to all GOVERN-MENTAL AUTHORities, pharmacies, doctors etc. -> because your PERSON agreed to their vaxxine CONtrACT by way of "Informed CONsent"
In 2017 the Victorian government created a new Police unit; "PORT" - "PUBLIC" Order Response Team, yes you read that right; PUBLIC that have been trained and armed with long arm semi-automatic weapons.. in an Unarmed PUBLIC.
2018 The Bank Bail In - Laws were passed, so the government is no longer going to BAIL THEM OUT.. it is you savings accounts that the Banks can now take at their discretion.
2020/2021 Federal Government passed a new law, to invite Foreign Troops and Foreign Police into Australia under a declared "Emergency" -> with full immunity from all of our laws!
via the "Defence Legislation Amendment (Enhancement of Defence Force Response to Emergencies) Bill 2020" Read Section 123AA 👇 Which Foreign countries troops / police = Undefined What type of Emergencies = Undefined Massive quantities of PCR test kits were being purchased by nearly every country on the planet [via the World Bank] starting in 2017 and continuing through 2018 and 2019. I do have the archived web pages, but YT delete my posts.
In April 2020 HCQ was banned in Australia [Due to 7 medical hit pieces] that were later retracted, yet there are over 200 global peer reviewed studies that prove HCQ is very safe and extremely effective.
In late June 2020, the Vic government mandated the flu vax for anyone involved in nursing / aged care facilities, guess where we had the sudden and massive spikes in cases and deaths immediately thereafter?
1. Elderly = Compromised autoimmune system by way of age.
2. Elderly with comorbidities = further compromised autoimmune system because it is already fighting against one or more comorbidities.
3. Now inject the above with a flu shot, that is meant to trigger an immune response.. that already have a depleted immune system = cytokine storm!
I'm sure these are all just coincidences right
How can you tell when anyone in the government's service is lying ?
... When their lips are moving !
Ghandi had to hunger strike against the same powers and sucseeded eventually.
Change is coming and already they try to make parliaments their ,own excluding anyone who disagrees with their lies by changing the statute laws on elections and who may stand, where.
Hunger strikes are not the first thing that comes to mind, however boycotting, newspapers and state broadcasters and living a quiet and kind life within your local communities who also boycott their lies should rebalance our western democracies.
I predict the next ten years all the major political parties in Britain USA, Australia, India will not exist. Nor will the EU or the United Kingdom. Be patient, the establishment is already in it's death throes.
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Thanks, J for causing me to catch this.
RC
Privelage isolates.
I do not see any evidence of this in Putin or the other diplomats we see from Russia. With China I don’t think Chairman Xi is, but the CCP definitely is. Just my opinion.
They repel those that disagree from sharing power. Even amongst themselves.
'is he one of us' Thatcher used to ask.
Every civil war has split families assunder often with disastrous effects.
Until we humans recognise that we are but one family, albeit from 72,000 years ago, as the dna confirms, and understand that our differences make us stronger, elitism will always flourish.
I got over my 'eliteness' at sixteen when I mixed it with the ordinary proles in the army. There are many very smart people at all levels who do not wish to tell others what to do. At the time I learnt this, for the First of many times, I found it most liberating and cathartic.
Too many of us have used the power matrix to advance one cause or another rather than to advance HUMANITY.
A view I know you share Joyly.
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The PTB/Team FUKUSraHell are clearly using AU & NZ as their training grounds for the western world.
(It's starting to feel like we're living in Westworld.)
RC
If you go to the cartoon, put cursor on top of it, right click, it might offer you the opportunity to either copy its URL or open it in a new tab.. If the latter, copy the address/url of that new tab and paste here. That's worked for me a lot.
RC
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Virus Variant Affects Vaccinated People More Than Unvaccinated People: Study
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I swear it gets old being right (I'm referencing we SOTTites) and having no one 'recall' that you were. Argh!
(BTW, I've not even checked your link though I believe your description at >95%* as if I had clicked it and read it.)
RC
*Insanely high for me.
rc
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