An Ivy League Nudge-ucation -- Rachelle DeJong, Commentary Magazine; Junk Science

Abstract

“Fake it till you make it.” So said Yale University President Peter Salovey to a group he gathered last October for the announcement of the university’s “2013–2016 Sustainability Strategic Plan.” The plan builds upon earlier progress toward making Yale less wasteful and more environmentally conscious by seeking to establish an immersive atmosphere of “sustainability” on campus. Sustainability, defined in the 1987 United Nations report “Our Sustainable Future” as development that “meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs,” takes on a social and political hue that advocates progressive social structures and disdains free markets. President Salovey offered the “fake it” advice in the hope that the more stubborn students might, after a while, not be able to tell the difference between feigning eco-zeal and fainting from it. Do as the Romans do—and soon you’ll be Roman. According to the Yale Daily News, “the new plan centers upon encouraging behavioral change in areas ranging from food consumption to paper use.” Exactly what “encouraging” entails hasn’t been spelled out yet. It will depend, Salovey said, on what social-psychology research indicates will best push students’ buttons.

(Click link below to read more)
READ MORE 

 
Nudge is the word Cass Sunstein used to describe his method of brainwashing people into thinking they knew the secret or knew at least how to act and think in accordance with the elitist version of reality/mythology in the new socialist/post modern world.

Cass was the Obama White House guy on regulation.  In 2009 he was made Czar of information and regulatory affairs.

Sunstein’s books include After the Rights Revolution (1990), The Partial Constitution (1993), Democracy and the Problem of Free Speech (1993), Legal Reasoning and Political Conflict (1996), Free Markets and Social Justice (1997), One Case at a Time (1999), Risk and Reason (2002), Why Societies Need Dissent (2003), Laws of Fear: Beyond the Precautionary Principle (2005), Radicals in Robes: Why Extreme Right-Wing Courts Are Wrong for America (2005), Are Judges Political? An Empirical Analysis of the Federal Judiciary (2005), Infotopia: How Many Minds Produce Knowledge (2006), and, co-authored with Richard Thaler, Nudge: Improving Decisions about Health, Wealth, and Happiness (2008).

 (Click link below to read more)
READ MORE Sphere: Related Content