Nudge Wiki

Person

Patrick Fagan

Guest; behavioral scientist, former lead psychologist at Cambridge Analytica; Chief Science Officer, Capuchin

Behavioral scientist and part-time university lecturer, applying psychology (implicit testing, facial coding, psychometrics) to commercial research. Was lead psychologist at Cambridge Analytica for eight months, working on commercial (not political) projects, before later work on political campaigns elsewhere. Now Chief Science Officer at Capuchin and author of Hashtag Hooked and, with Laura Dodsworth, Free Your Mind. Guest explaining how personality can be inferred from small digital signals — Facebook likes, app usage, media preferences — and used to tailor marketing (Episode 50); returns to discuss the ethics of targeted political advertising, why he doesn't believe 2016-era ads swung an election on their own, and a three-part framework for nudging ethics (Episode 51). Website: [patrickfagan.co.uk](https://www.patrickfagan.co.uk/).

Episode 152 covers everyday manipulation: foot-in-the-door conditioning (wild-pig trapping, income tax, vaccine passports, Meta's return-to-office reversal), the mirror-image door-in-the-face technique, scent marketing (Nike, Malibu, Novotel), the search engine manipulation effect on swing voters, social-norm messaging, and government insect-eating campaigns as a case study in stacked framing techniques (see Framing Effect). Closes with practical resistance tips: reduce exposure, learn the techniques, watch for personal vulnerability ("blips"), and hold a stable identity or plan to anchor against persuasion (see Nudge Ethics (Who Nudges the Nudgers)).

Episode 159 walks through Robert Cialdini's six principles of influence — social proof, scarcity, commitment & consistency, reciprocity, liking, and authority — illustrating each with a fresh study (the invisible gorilla radiologist study for inattentional blindness, the Milgram sky-staring and Brazil bar jogger cases for social proof, the 2006 Endowed Progress Effect car-wash study, a Tiger Woods photoshopped-salesman liking study, a dentist-signed-letter authority study) and shows all six stacked into a single 19-word NHS COVID-vaccine text message (see NHS COVID-Vaccine Text Six-Principles Case).

Episode 241 covers a year-long personal experiment, "Just Do Stuff," in which Fagan did one new thing every week (a cuddle workshop, a Just Stop Oil meetup, a My Little Pony convention, day-trading, a flotation tank, a day directed entirely by ChatGPT), spending roughly £12,000 across the year. Discusses Experiential vs Material Purchases, Screen Time and Time Distortion, Shared Experience Amplification, and re-cites the Aronson Mills Initiation-Severity Study with its full original figures (see Patrick Fagan Just Do Stuff Year-Long Experiment Case).

Discussed in

  • Episode 50 — 50- What marketers can learn from your Facebook profile
  • Episode 51 — 51- Advertising Ethics- Can Facebook ads swing an election
  • Episode 152 — 152-how-to-manipulate-the-masses
  • Episode 159 — 159-six-proven-principles-to-persuade-anyone
  • Episode 241 — 241-a-year-long-happiness-experiment-try-one-new-thing-a-week-did-it-work ("Just Do Stuff" year-long experiment)

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