As someone with a background in classical conditioning, hypnosis, and a few assorted subjects…
YIKES.
Like, sure, the way I use it is more intimate, but throughout this whole article my thoughts kept rushing to, “Jesus, does Brittany know you’re using aggressive and manipulative psychological techniques to train her? Is there informed consent? Is there any consent?” Like, if Brittany sees this article, do you expect her reaction to be, “Oh, cool, that’s really fucking neat that you did that”, or “Wait… you did what without telling me?!” Even if the outcome is good, the path to get there is… morally fraught, at the very least.
I thought “only positive reinforcement” was a good enough way to ensure that my kink discord server wouldn’t end up culty. It did not work. It was an unsafe, unhealthy place to be, because it was, essentially, a sex cult around me, and I did not notice at the time. You have to be really careful with psychological manipulation, which is why informed consent is so crucial.
Then again, this is LessWrong, so maybe you’re just communicating in a way I don’t understand. Maybe this just sounds creepy because you’re putting it in Rationalese. But I will stress to any third parties that if you want to do this, for god’s sake make sure you have explicit consent to do so.
It’s great to see Brittany’s response was so positive, but could you still clarify if you explicitly told her you would help her learn how to cook, and/or did she ask you to do so? Or did you just infer that it’s something that she would enjoy, and proceed without making it explicit?
Again, I’m happy for Tiffany’s newfound cooking abilities—congratulations to her!
As someone with a background in classical conditioning, hypnosis, and a few assorted subjects…
YIKES.
Like, sure, the way I use it is more intimate, but throughout this whole article my thoughts kept rushing to, “Jesus, does Brittany know you’re using aggressive and manipulative psychological techniques to train her? Is there informed consent? Is there any consent?” Like, if Brittany sees this article, do you expect her reaction to be, “Oh, cool, that’s really fucking neat that you did that”, or “Wait… you did what without telling me?!” Even if the outcome is good, the path to get there is… morally fraught, at the very least.
I thought “only positive reinforcement” was a good enough way to ensure that my kink discord server wouldn’t end up culty. It did not work. It was an unsafe, unhealthy place to be, because it was, essentially, a sex cult around me, and I did not notice at the time. You have to be really careful with psychological manipulation, which is why informed consent is so crucial.
Then again, this is LessWrong, so maybe you’re just communicating in a way I don’t understand. Maybe this just sounds creepy because you’re putting it in Rationalese. But I will stress to any third parties that if you want to do this, for god’s sake make sure you have explicit consent to do so.
Brittany saw the article because the first thing I did after writing it was send her a link. Here is her response.
It’s great to see Brittany’s response was so positive, but could you still clarify if you explicitly told her you would help her learn how to cook, and/or did she ask you to do so? Or did you just infer that it’s something that she would enjoy, and proceed without making it explicit?
Again, I’m happy for Tiffany’s newfound cooking abilities—congratulations to her!