If this is an acceptable model for the second theory, then you can see that the first theory is simultaneously accommodated: a person’s affiliation (yes/no) is defined by their direction relative to zero, so the people on the fence (at 0) require only a nudge to have the desired affiliation. So if you want to increase the number of people who have a certain affiliation, aiming your persuasion at people near 0 is the best way to do that. On the other hand, if you just care about moving the center of mass in the correct direction, it is no less effective to target another position.
So if you want to increase the number of people who have a certain affiliation, aiming your persuasion at people near 0 is the best way to do that.
The problem is that the people near 0 won’t read your book. The gravitational model suggests that you can write a book on a topic targeted at people near k>0, and affect more people near 0 than by targeting them directly.
If this is an acceptable model for the second theory, then you can see that the first theory is simultaneously accommodated: a person’s affiliation (yes/no) is defined by their direction relative to zero, so the people on the fence (at 0) require only a nudge to have the desired affiliation. So if you want to increase the number of people who have a certain affiliation, aiming your persuasion at people near 0 is the best way to do that. On the other hand, if you just care about moving the center of mass in the correct direction, it is no less effective to target another position.
The problem is that the people near 0 won’t read your book. The gravitational model suggests that you can write a book on a topic targeted at people near k>0, and affect more people near 0 than by targeting them directly.