𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐎𝐫𝐝𝐞𝐫 𝐎𝐟 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐔𝐧𝐫𝐮𝐥𝐞𝐝

🇬🇧 𝗜𝘁 𝗶𝘀 𝗺𝗮𝗶𝗻𝘀𝘁𝗿𝗲𝗮𝗻 𝗻𝗼𝘄...

𝗜 𝗵𝗮𝘃𝗲 𝗯𝗲𝗲𝗻 𝘀𝗮𝘆𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘁𝗵𝗶𝘀 𝗮𝗯𝗼𝘂𝘁 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗚𝗼𝘃𝗲𝗿𝗻𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗦𝗮𝗴𝗲 𝘀𝗶𝗻𝗰𝗲 𝗠𝗮𝗿𝗰𝗵 𝟮𝟬𝟮𝟬, 𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗻 𝗨𝗞 𝗖𝗼𝗹𝘂𝗺𝗻 𝗲𝘅𝗽𝗼𝘀𝗲𝗱 𝗶𝘁 𝗮𝗹𝗹 𝗠𝗮𝘆 𝟮𝟬𝟮𝟬. Deanne Santini

𝗦𝘁𝗮𝘁𝗲 𝗼𝗳 𝗳𝗲𝗮𝗿: 𝗵𝗼𝘄 𝗺𝗶𝗻𝗶𝘀𝘁𝗲𝗿𝘀 ‘𝘂𝘀𝗲𝗱 𝗰𝗼𝘃𝗲𝗿𝘁 𝘁𝗮𝗰𝘁𝗶𝗰𝘀’ 𝘁𝗼 𝗸𝗲𝗲𝗽 𝘀𝗰𝗮𝗿𝗲𝗱 𝗽𝘂𝗯𝗹𝗶𝗰 𝗮𝘁 𝗵𝗼𝗺𝗲.

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.

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 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.

🔗 𝗥𝗲𝗮𝗱 𝗙𝘂𝗹𝗹.𝗮𝗿𝘁𝗶𝗰𝗹𝗲 -𝗧𝗲𝗹𝗲𝗴𝗿𝗮𝗽𝗵

🔗𝗙𝗼𝗹𝗹𝗼𝘄, 𝗦𝘂𝗯𝘀𝗰𝗿𝗶𝗯𝗲👇👇 𝗦𝗵𝗮𝗿𝗲 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝘂𝗻𝗶𝘁𝗲:
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𝙒𝙝𝙚𝙧𝙚 𝙥𝙚𝙤𝙥𝙡𝙚 𝙘𝙤𝙢𝙚 𝙩𝙤𝙜𝙚𝙩𝙝𝙚𝙧 𝙩𝙤 𝙙𝙚𝙗𝙖𝙩𝙚 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙧𝙚𝙖𝙡 𝙩𝙧𝙪𝙩𝙝.🤝🥰✌💏

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State of fear: how ministers ‘used covert tactics’ to keep scared public at home

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.

913 viewsDeanne Santini, edited 08:43