Histories of Human Engineering: Tact and Technology

279 Pages·2017·1.301 MB·English

by  Maarten Derksen

Histories of Human Engineering
Thedreamofcontroloverhumanbehaviourisanolddream,sharedby
manycultures.Thisfascinatingaccountofthehistoriesofhumanengi-
neeringdescribeshowtechnologiesofmanagingindividualsandgroups
weredevelopedfromthenineteenthcenturytothepresentday,ranging
frombrainwashingandmindcontroltoDaleCarnegie’sartofdealing
withpeople.Derksenrevealsthatcommontoallofthemistheperpetual
tensionbetweenthedesiretocontrolpeople’sbehaviourandtheresis-
tancethisprovokes.Thus,toinfluenceotherpeoplesuccessfully,tech-
nology had to be combined with tact: with a personal touch, with a
subtlehintorwithoutrightdeception,manipulationsweremadepala-
table or invisible. Combining psychological history and theory with
insightsfromscienceandtechnologystudiesandrhetoricalscholarship,
Derksenoffersafreshperspectiveonhumanengineeringthatwillappeal
to those interested in the history of psychology and the history of
technology.
Maarten Derksen is Assistant Professor in the Faculty of Behavioural
and Social Sciences at the University of Groningen. He has authored
Iedereendoetaan psychologie(1999)and,withSybeTerwee, translated
Wittgenstein’s Philosophical Investigations into Dutch (1992; 2nd ed.
2006).HewasanhonoraryfellowoftheScienceStudiesCentreofthe
University of Bath, an associate of the ‘What Makes Organization?’
research programme at the Copenhagen Business School, and is cur-
rentlyamemberoftheeditorialboardofTheory&Psychology.

Histories of Human
Engineering
Tact and Technology
Maarten Derksen
UniversityofGroningen
UniversityPrintingHouse,CambridgeCB28BS,UnitedKingdom
OneLibertyPlaza,20thFloor,NewYork,NY10006,USA
477WilliamstownRoad,PortMelbourne,VIC3207,Australia
4843/24,2ndFloor,AnsariRoad,Daryaganj,Delhi–110002,India
79AnsonRoad,#06–04/06,Singapore079906
CambridgeUniversityPressispartoftheUniversityofCambridge.
ItfurtherstheUniversity’smissionbydisseminatingknowledgeinthepursuitof
education,learning,andresearchatthehighestinternationallevelsofexcellence.
www.cambridge.org
Informationonthistitle:www.cambridge.org/9781107057432
DOI:10.1017/9781107414921
©MaartenDerksen2017
Thispublicationisincopyright.Subjecttostatutoryexception
andtotheprovisionsofrelevantcollectivelicensingagreements,
noreproductionofanypartmaytakeplacewithoutthewritten
permissionofCambridgeUniversityPress.
Firstpublished2017
PrintedintheUnitedKingdombyClays,StIvesplc
AcataloguerecordforthispublicationisavailablefromtheBritishLibrary.
ISBN978-1-107-05743-2Hardback
CambridgeUniversityPresshasnoresponsibilityforthepersistenceoraccuracyof
URLsforexternalorthird-partyinternetwebsitesreferredtointhispublication
anddoesnotguaranteethatanycontentonsuchwebsitesis,orwillremain,
accurateorappropriate.
Contents
Acknowledgements pagevi
1 Introduction 1
2 TactandTechnology 13
3 ScientificManagementandtheHumanFactor 33
4 ‘SocialTechnology’ 56
5 DaleCarnegieandtheFineArtofDealingwithPeople 78
6 KarlPopper’sSocialTechnologyandthePersonal
Element 104
7 TactfulLeadership 114
8 MindControl 139
9 ThePrimingSaga:TheSubtleTechnologyof
PsychologicalExperimentation 177
10 Conclusion 199
Notes 209
Bibliography 245
Index 267
v
Acknowledgements
Chapter3isarevisedversionof‘TurningMenintoMachines?Scientific
Management,IndustrialPsychology,andthe“HumanFactor”’(Derksen,
Maarten;JournaloftheHistoryoftheBehavioralSciences50,no.2(2014):
148–65).IthankSigneVikkelsøforherdetailedandconstructivereview;
reviewer2foratleasttakingthetimetoreadthemanuscriptandsayinga
fewwords;theeditor,IanNicholson,forguidingthemanuscripttopub-
lication;andthepublisher,JohnWileyandSons,forgivingpermissionto
usethearticlehere.
Chapter4isarevisionof‘TheHistoryof“SocialTechnology”,1898–
1930’(Derksen,MaartenandWierenga,Tjardie;HistoryandTechnology
29,no.4(2013):311–30),whichcanbefoundatwww.tandfonline.com.
I thank the editor, Martin Collins, for his expert handling of the manu-
script;thetworeviewersfortheirhelpfulreviews;thepublisher,Taylor&
Francis,forgivingpermissiontousethearticlehere;andaboveallTjardie
Wierenga for working on it with me and allowing me to use it for this
book.
The project of which this book is a product has its origin in a dinner
conversation years ago, when Anne Beaulieu and I discovered we were
bothinterestedinsocialtechnology.Assoofteninourlifetogether,Anne
turned what would otherwise have remained merely an interesting idea
intoaprojectwecouldworkontogether.Mygreatestdebtistoher.
Without Hetty Marx, formerly commissioning editor at Cambridge
UniversityPress,therewouldhavebeennobook.I’mstilldeeplyembar-
rassed that she had to remind me twice that I had promised to write a
proposal. I hope the final product lives up to the faith she had in me. I
thankthereviewersfortheircommentsontheproposalandthefirstdraft.
When Hetty left to become an independent editor Janka Romero took
over,andshehasbeenagreathelp.
I’mverygratefultoLizBartonRoyerandthestaffoftheDrs.Nicholas
and Dorothy Cummings Center for the History of Psychology at the
University of Akron, Ohio, for their assistance during my visit there. At
myownfacultylibrarySanderSprikwasinvaluable.
vi
Acknowledgements vii
Overtheyears,Ihavebenefittedfromconversationswithmanycollea-
gues.AnneBeaulieu,SigneVikkelsøandIorganisedaworkshopin2009
on social technology, generously funded by WTMC, the Netherlands
Graduate Research School of Science, Technology and Modern
Culture.OurdiscussionswithKatjaMayer,TerezaStöckelová,Kathrin
Braun, Javier Lezaun, Ingmar Lippert, Jonna Brenninkmeijer, Katia
Dupret Søndergaard, Julie Sommerlund, Sara Malou Strandvad, Paul
WoutersandBasvanHeurwereagreatjoyandinspiration.Katjapointed
me to Charles Henderson and his social technology and thus made me
realisethattheconcepthasahistory.SteveBrowncouldn’tmakeit,but
hisworkisalwaysimportanttome.
PaulduGayandSigneVikkelsøwerekindenoughtohavemeoverfora
fewdaysin2011attheDepartmentofOrganizationoftheCopenhagen
Business School, where I had inspiring discussions about organisation
andmanagementwiththemandwithKarenBoll,ChrisGreyandChris
Mathieu and, at the Department of Management, Politics and
Philosophy,withKasparVilladsen.
Ihavethegoodfortunetoworkintheworld’sbestTheoryandHistory
ofPsychologygroup.Overtheyearsmyideasanddraftswerelistenedto,
read and commented on by Jonna Brenninkmeijer, Adeena Mey, Hilde
Tjeerdema, Jess Cadwallader, Felix Schirmann, Trudy Dehue, Carlos
Baum, Stephan Schleim, Berend Verhoeff and Douwe Draaisma. One
wayoranother,theywereallimportanttome,andIlovethemall,butmy
greatest debt is to Douwe, who read my original proposal and all the
chaptersandofferedinvaluablesuggestions.Ifthisbookcomesanywhere
near the clarity and insight of his work, readers may count themselves
lucky.
Dennis Bryson prompted me to clarify why I think the difference
between ‘social technology’ and ‘social engineering’ is significant. My
ideas about replication were much influenced by my collaboration with
EricRietzschelandbyanextensiveemailconversationwithHansRadder.
NathanielRiverstaughtmealotaboutrhetoric,kairosinparticular.My
friendSteveCourse,somewhatworryingly,turnedouttobeanexperton
the CIA; he read the chapter about brainwashing and offered many
valuable suggestions. (He is convinced Dulles was in on the secret, by
the way.) Marcia Holmes read the chapter too and sent me extensive,
helpfulcomments.
I am immensely grateful to all these people. No doubt many of them
willbesurprisedbywhat,ifanything,cameoftheiradvice.Perhapsothers
will, upon finishing this book, wish I had consulted them too, thinking
thatmighthavedonesomegood.Ineithercase,Iacceptfullresponsibility
forallofthebook’sflaws.

1 Introduction
ARevolutioninMarketing
A revolution has been proclaimed in the field of marketing: the age of
neuromarketingisdawning.Nowthatresearcherscanlookdirectlyinto
thebrainwithanfMRIscanner,theycanseewhatreallyattractspeoplein
anadvertisementortelevisioncommercialandwhatmovesthemtobuy
a product. Neuromarketing research has found our ‘buy button’, and if
youhavesomethingtosell,itcantellyouexactlyhowtopushthatbutton.
Howitworksisdescribedinabookaimedatbusinessowners,salespeople
and marketers titled The Buy Button.1 It was written by Martin de
Munnik, one of the people behind Neurensics, an Amsterdam research
and consulting firm that specialises in neuromarketing. In The Buy
Button, subtitled The Secret of the Consumer’s Brain, De Munnik tells us
ofthegroundbreakingdiscoverythatthedecisiontobuyaproductisthe
resultoftheinterplaybetweenthreebrainareas:thenucleusaccumbens,
theinsulaandthemedialprefrontalcortex.Thesethreeareastogetherare
thebuybutton,‘thegreatestneuromarketingrevelationofalltime’,asthe
book’scoverproclaims.CompanieslikeNeurensicshavetakenthisscien-
tific discovery and turned it into practical applications. With an fMRI
scanner they can look into the brain and see the activity in these areas
whensubjectsarepresentedwith,forexample,differentadvertisements
forbreakfastcerealornailpolish.Choosingthebestadvertisement,once
an art based on gut feelings, has become a science. Marketing has been
transformedintoa‘lotterywithoutblanks’.2That,atleast,istheclaim.
Letusforthemomentputasidethequestionofwhethertherereallyis
a buy button in the brain – suffice it to say that there are other neuro-
marketing researchers who call the idea ‘bullshit’ and warn of ‘neuro-
cowboys’harmingthefieldbyoversellingit.3Iwanttofocusonthedream
thatthebuybuttonstandsfor:thedreamofknowingwhatreallymoves
people and using that knowledge to manipulate their behaviour in an
effectiveandefficientmanner.Themetaphorofabuttoninthebrainthat
triggers an urge to buy a product represents an ideal of control over
1