We can always be nudged by A in such a way that we will do B unless — unless — we become conscious that we are being nudged and then decide to confound the expectation

I cut out the bulk of the article to get to the "meat" of it - for next time you are nudged to get more of their vaccines - Fool me once, foolish me, Fool me twice -

We can always be nudged by A in such a way that we will do B unless — unless — we become conscious that we are being nudged and then decide to confound the expectation. In other words, as soon as we become aware that we are being nudged, we can be nudged no longer — at least not in the way that we have recently been nudged. This is because our knowledge of being nudged enters the nudging mechanism as a new input and dislocates it, since the original “nudge” was only supposed to work if we were unaware of it.

Now, the behavioural scientists might say that they can themselves innovate and come up with a new way of persuading us to do things against our own interests for the ‘greater good’, but as soon as we become aware that ‘liberal’ and ‘democratic’ regimes are in the habit of consciously attempting to manipulate the population as a whole then the game is over. ‘Nudge’ only works if the people being nudged are not aware of it. Make them aware — starting calling things ‘nudge’, for God’s sake — and the game is over. Then governments, if they want to insist on their controls, will have to revert to simple Eastern forms of coercion. Governments will not be able to hide from the people that they are being ‘nudged’ as long as there is even a sliver of free enquiry, open deliberation and public education. This is because we are people being nudged, not by God, or Satan, or Antichrist, or Sauron, or the Daleks, but by other people.

Dr. James Alexander is a Professor in the Department of Political Science at Bilkent University in Turkey.

Daily Sceptic