Social Engineering

Nudge by nudge, the theory goes, the herd is steered — and thanks the shepherd.

As documented practice: RAND's Delphi method, nudge units (the UK's Behavioural Insights Team, established in government 2010), public-health persuasion campaigns, and platform choice architecture — all published, all effective at the margins they claim. The conspiracy version upgrades margin-shifting to script-writing. The node's factual anchor is that governments do employ behavioral scientists to steer populations, openly, with mixed results; the lore extrapolates competence. Links Overton (the vocabulary), Tavistock (the alleged headquarters), and predictive programming.