r/conspiracy: Remember that recent Facebook controversy about the psychological experiment involving the Department of Defense? I found out that Zynga (they make the "Words With Friends" FB game), recently hired Regina Dugan to the Board of Directors. She previously served as a director for DARPA, under the DoD.

Remember that recent Facebook controversy about the psychological experiment involving the Department of Defense? I found out that Zynga (they make the "Words With Friends" FB game), recently hired Regina Dugan to the Board of Directors. She previously served as a director for DARPA, under the DoD.

36 2014-07-28 by fooook

I had started to suspect that Words with Friends was tinkering with psychological manipulation, and I have reasonable evidence to support my theory if anyone is curious*. So I started searching, and stumbled upon this press release dated July 9, 2014:

http://investor.zynga.com/releasedetail.cfm?ReleaseID=858927

My theory is that the manipulative experiment was conducted through a combination of Words With Friends, and its integration and notifications on Facebook.

*There are a limited number of letters that are available to make words, so it is possible for them to seed the available letters so that certain words stand out as the best or only moves. I play with my boss, and his best move once was the word "quit." One time there were a couple days before I moved, and my best move was then the word "shun." I played with my mom, and the best move was the word "tit." I've seen other examples. They are words that could be perceived as negative in context, and the app can also post the moves to your Facebook timeline.

Edit 7/29: I'll go ahead and update that my other boss just played "tit." Maybe the post had been detected and someone thought it would be funny :p

8 comments

6 matter_memory 2014-07-28

N-O-T-H-I-N-G

L-O-N-E-L-Y

P-O-L-I-C-E

S-I-L-E-N-C-E

R-E-L-A-X

H-A-P-P-Y

J-O-Y

A-L-O-N-E

C-O-N-F-U-S-E

Q-U-I-E-T

O-B-E-Y

C-O-N-S-U-M-E

C-O-N-F-O-R-M

M-A-R-R-Y

F-O-R-G-E-T.

4 Vakano1939 2014-07-28

Words with friends sounds like the Rorschach test (aka inkblot test) in that a psychologist use it to examine the personality characteristics and emotional functioning of the player. Players associate certain words with what is currently in there mind.

2 fooook 2014-07-28

That makes sense... With only 7 letters and sophisticated algorithms, I think it's very possible to significantly limit and influence what words can be played.

3 Vakano1939 2014-07-28

Limited yes, but they achieved there goal to influence negative and positive behavior/thoughts through subconscious impression using games or the news feed. But a good question would be Why? Why are they doing personality test on there community ? Marketing or social engineering.

BTW good find.

2 Mrg13 2014-07-28

Marketing or social engineering.

Or both as marketing is basically social engineering.

1 fooook 2014-07-28

BTW good find.

Thank you!

1 know_comment 2014-07-28

wow. and zynga has been such a failure with such an acknowledged overvalued IPO. Where is the real value unless you are paying for microtransactions or they are able to sell you product. Free gaming has to be about emotional manipulation if it is going to see any return.

1 this_ships_sinking 2014-07-28

and works for Google?