After six months of evasion and obfuscation, the British Psychological Society (BPS) has made its position clear: it sees nothing ethically questionable about deploying covert psychological strategies (often referred to as ‘nudges’) on the British people as a means of increasing compliance with public health restrictions.
Since the beginning of the year, former consultant clinical psychologist Dr Gary Sidley, together with many other psychology specialists, have expressed their concerns about the use of ‘nudges’, as recommended by Government-employed behavioural scientists, throughout the COVID-19 communication campaign. (See here for a timeline). Particularly alarming has been the deployment of covert interventions, that often impact below people’s level of awareness, and which rely on fear inflation, shaming and scapegoating as the means of promoting compliance with the unprecedented COVID-19 restrictions.