A State of Fear: How the UK government weaponised fear during the Covid-19 pandemic

by Laura Dodsworth

In 2010, the authors of MINDSPACE: Influencing behaviour through public policy3 at the Institute of Government, a think tank, included a whole chapter on the ‘legitimacy of government involvement in behaviour change’ because they know it is ‘controversial’. Although they say that ‘public acceptability’ should not be the determining condition for going forward with behaviour change, they acknowledge that the use of behavioural science ‘has implications for consent and freedom of choice’ and offers people ‘little opportunity to opt out’. As such, the report conceded that ‘policy-makers wishing to use these tools… need the approval of the public to do so.’ Yet to date, the public has not been consulted nor formally given approval. A review4 of Halpern’s book, Inside the Nudge Unit, postulated that nudge implies a ‘sanguine acceptance of a technique of government that has manipulation and even deception as a prominent feature’. Making no bones about it, nudge is clever people in government making sure the not-so-clever people do what they want.