Brian Baird: Coward (XIV) Now this clown wants to engage in behavioral modification?

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No matter how vigilant in the consultant's world, some things manage to fly under the radar.

This is one of those things. Read this. Understand that when the slimy worm representing us made no mistake when he called us "Nazis" and "Brown Shirts." It takes a stunning level of arrogance to even begin to address constituents that way... and that this scumbag now wants to engage in behavior modification is, perhaps the most sickening element of this slimeball's make up.

Brian Baird and the politics of behavioral change

Posted by Jeff Mapes, The Oregonian July 31, 2009 16:52PM

Categories: Congress, culture, energy, politics and economics

As a once-practicing psychologist, you might say it's hard-wired into Congressman Brian Baird to figure out how to get people to change their behavior for the better.

Rep. Brian Baird

As it turns out, that tendency led to quite a kerfuffle in the House this week as the Vancouver Democrat won committee passage of a bill authorizing the spending of $10 million a year to figure out how best to help and persuade people to reduce their energy use.

Republicans charged that Baird was trying to move the government into what some called mind control. The story quickly jumped out of Capitol Hill and is now hitting the conservative blogosphere and talk-show circuit.

Just the other night, Fox News commentator Glenn Beck - no stranger to hyperbole - devoted a lengthy segment to Baird's bill, warning: "They're going to study us and find ways to essentially trick us into driving crappy hybrids, and I bet that's just the beginning."

Baird's taking the hits with some humor - "The first thing we need to do is send aluminum hats to people to protect them from mind rays," he told me Friday - but you can sense the frustration in his voice (hey, I can do my own psychoanalyzing).

In one sense, Baird's legislation, H.R. 3247, is pretty unremarkable. It would establish a social and behavioral research program in the Department of Energy.

Businesses do this kind of research when they are trying to figure out how to make their products more user friendly, like when they're designing the dashboard of a car. And so does the military when it's trying to entice new recruits. You could even argue that abstinence-only sex education, a favorite of conservatives, is aimed at "tricking" teens into not having sex.

But the idea of behavioral research on energy seemed to get under the skin of many Republicans who have complained that the Democratic regime in Washington is inserting itself into too many areas of American life - whether it's bailing out the auto companies or revamping the health-care system.

"At some point, controlling peoples' behavior and social engineering becomes a threat to peoples' freedom," complained Rep. Dana Rohrabacher, R-Calif., during the debate over the bill Thursday before the House Committee on Science and Technology.

Baird, who has also applied his interest in behavioral science to such issues as health care, countered that he's simply talking about using this research to communicate more effectively with consumers.

For example, he noted that utilities have found that people are much more likely to follow energy-savings tips if they are shown right on their bill how their consumption compares to homes of similar sizes.

"We don't have to develop any of these new technologies" to produce immediate, major reductions in energy use, Baird said. "We just need to change our behavior. Depressingly, we don't. We aren't very smart about getting people to change their behavior."

When I talked to Baird, he went on at length about how people don't always make rational choices, and about how social research can help show how to nudge them in a certain direction.

In fact, "Nudge" is the title of a popular book on the subject co-written by Cass Sunstein, who is now a top White House aide in an administration that has shown quite a bit of interest in the subject. (One well-reported example from the book: Workers tend to set aside more in their 401(k) if they have to opt out of contributing instead of opting in.)

Still, Baird said, this kind of talk "feeds into the paranoia that is so prevalent right now." His measure now heads to the full House and Baird said it is clear he has a floor fight on his hands.

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