Anthropology holds the key to how Cambridge Analytica played with our minds

As dust of the Cambridge Analytica crisis begins to settle around us, Peter Wilkinson looks at a quirk of human psychology that might explain how we got into this mess in the first place.
March 26, 2018 12:13
by PETER WILKINSON

Social media manipulation, including the Cambridge Analytica scandal and the allegations of Russian troll farms distorting elections, has brought sharply into focus that people are drawn more to hate and fear than love and honesty.


It’s also the basis of much journalism. As a journalist, I did many more negative than positive stories. Friends would ask me: “Why doesn’t TV do good news stories?” My standard reply was: “Because the audience doesn’t want it.”

I’ve often reflected on why that generalisation is true. Our task as communication professionals is to understand, not just what impacts people, but why.

Is it deeply embedded in our DNA, our instinct, to be drawn to the negative?

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