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President Obama Orders Behavioral Experiments on American Public

Hon. Dr. in Acts-celeratology Posts: 6385 **9/17/15 3:03 pm**

President Obama Orders Behavioral Experiments on American Public

By Chuck Ross, The Daily Caller

2:12 PM 09/15/2015

President Obama announced a new executive order on Tuesday which authorizes federal agencies to conduct behavioral experiments on U.S. citizens in order to advance government initiatives.

In its 2013 memo, which was reported by Fox News at the time, the White House openly admitted that the initiative involved behavioral experimentation.

The initiative draws on research from University of Chicago economist Richard Thaler and Harvard law school professor Cass Sunstein, who was also dubbed Obama’s regulatory czar. The two behavioral scientists argued in their 2008 book “Nudge” that government policies can be designed in a way that “nudges” citizens towards certain behaviors and choices.

http://nation.foxnews.com/2015/09/15/president-obama-orders-behavioral-experiments-american-public?ref=yfp

01000001 01100011 01110100 01110011 Posts: 24285 **9/17/15 4:05 pm**

Say it ain't so!!!! I haven't read about this. Wild... Confused

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Acts-perienced Poster Posts: 11849 **9/17/15 4:59 pm**

Aren't they doing this already? This isn't necessarily a bad thing if the things they are trying to 'nudge' people to do are good. The example from the UK, of mailing out, "“9 out of 10 people in Britain pay their taxes on time”, quoted in the article, resulting in more people paying taxes on time isn't some evil thing. I don't have a problem with that.

Some Conservatives complain that the welfare system is set up to incentivize having babies out of wedlock to get more welfare. Would this program test these things?

I don't see a problem with authorizing some quasi-experimental research into what kind of wording is more effective on government documents. I do see a problem if they are trying to get people to accept sexual immorality and things like that.

I do wonder why this needs to be an executive order. Is there any budget attached to this?

I took a PhD seminar from the inventor of the back translation method on program evaluation that went into detail about examining the value of programs. It was mainly a methods course on quasi-experimental data.
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You do realize all of them do this, right?

Hon. Dr. in Acts-celeratology Posts: 6042 **9/17/15 4:59 pm**

It's called economics.

We think that means "finance," but economics is about the choices we make. When Nancy Reagan said, "Just Say No," it was an attempt to influence behavior.

Same with Mrs. Obama's efforts for healthier lunches (as flawed as some of the results seem to be).

We do that when we preach.

TBN does it every time there's a fundraiser.

We are all trying to change behaviors--either ours or someone else's--much of the time.

Re: You do realize all of them do this, right?

Acts-pert Poster Posts: 16646 **9/17/15 5:22 pm**

[Insert Acts Pun Here] Posts: 14803 **9/17/15 8:18 pm**

I couldn't quite figure that out. They said compliance was increased by 15%, but if 9 out of 10 were already paying, 90% were already in compliance. If you can increase 90% by 15%, I'd say that's a humdinger of a program.

NBF...I...I...I rebuke you!

Hon. Dr. in Acts-celeratology Posts: 6042 **9/17/15 8:53 pm**

Re: NBF...I...I...I rebuke you!

01000001 01100011 01110100 01110011 Posts: 24285 **9/17/15 10:55 pm**

Acts-perienced Poster Posts: 11849 **9/18/15 4:18 am**

[Insert Acts Pun Here] Posts: 14803 **9/18/15 7:12 am**

So 91.5% compliance instead of 90%? Oh, wow, that's huge! LOL

Re: NBF...I...I...I rebuke you!

01000001 01100011 01110100 01110011 Posts: 24285 **9/18/15 8:30 am**