Our October meet-up was all about The Future of Persuasion with Graeme Phillipson. As our group was a little smaller, we decided to move from our usual room to a slightly smaller room. The great advantage was that the talk became much more personal and our wonderful audience got stuck in with plenty of challenging questions for our speaker!
The talk started with Graeme explaining how video can be manipulated and compressed without people noticing a particular difference in the quality. This is a really important point because, in the era of ‘fake news’, we all need to be much more aware of what we are looking at. A critical eye is a good skill to have!
As it turns out, our perception is everything and we all see slightly differently as Graeme pointed out with his favourite graph.
Graeme then moved on to talk about the ways that companies can subtly manipulate what we see. Companies like YouTube and Google are constantly assessing what we would most like to see and use split testing to present content. This practice is problematic because as we are not good at deciphering the quality of content, we can be easily misled, a process exacerbated by an algorithm that tends towards populism rather than truth.
The Gangnam Style Problem and Flat Earth Theory both illustrate how algorithms can be problematic. As Graeme explained, YouTube initially recommended videos according to popularity. So, if you started by watching one video, the next would be on a similar subject but would have more views. The problem was that no matter where the watcher started, they would, at some point, inevitably end up watching Gangnam Style, which is one of the most popular YouTube videos ever.
To counter this problem, YouTube has altered the algorithm so it no longer recommends the most popular video but a more niche video on the same topic. This has lead to the Flat Earth Theory problem. Most Flat Earthers credit their ‘enlightenment’ to videos they have watched on YouTube. Why? Because YouTube now promotes more niche content which tends to lead watchers down information rabbit holes. As people watch more content ‘proving’ that the Earth is flat, they are more likely to come to believe that it’s true, perpetuating the theory and increasing the popularity of the videos themselves.
Unfortunately, Graeme didn’t offer a neat solution to the world’s information problems – mainly because there isn’t one. However, his talk was a great illustration of how we treat information and how easy we are to deceive. His message could be boiled down to this: think critically about every source of information and watch Hyperland by Douglas Adams.
Graeme said, “It was really interesting to present here and a lovely bunch of people to talk to. There was some debate as we were going through, which was great to have!”
Listen to the Full Talk
Reading List to Take Home
The Science of Storytelling, Will Storr
The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, Shoshana Zuboff
Our Next Event:
The Future of the Book with Emma Nuttall
Manchester Futurists 