Mindf*ck: Cambridge Analytica and the Plot to Break America

by Christopher Wylie

This approach proved effective against Remain’s “Project Fear” messaging, which tried to focus voters on the potentially catastrophic economic risks of exiting the European Union. In short, it is far harder to make angry people fearful. The “affect bias” arising out of anger mediates people’s estimation of negative outcomes, which is why angry people are more inclined to engage in risky behavior—the same is true whether they are voting or starting a bar fight. If you have ever been in a bar fight, you know that literally the worst way imaginable to make your opponent think twice about a rash move is to yell threats at him. It only eggs him on. Remain’s focus on the economy also neglected to stop and ask people what they thought the economy was in the first place. Cambridge Analytica identified that many people in non-urban regions or in lower socioeconomic strata often externalized the notion of “the economy” to something that only the wealthy and metropolitan participated in. “The economy” was not their job in a local store; it was something that bankers did. This is also what made certain groups comfortable with economic risks and even trade wars, since, in their minds, that chaos would be unleashed upon the people who worked in “the economy.” And the more forceful the economic argument they heard, the more confident they would become that what they were “actually” hearing was the fears of a cowering elite worried about losing its wealth. This made them feel powerful, an...