Tell me this isn't the base on which microtargeting builds into psychometric voter targeting.

"At the heart of TAA is the ability to empirically diagnose the exact groupings that exist within target populations." -Tatham

jwc.nato.int/images/stories…

"Knowing these groupings allows them to be ranked and the ranking depends upon the degree of influence they may have in either promoting or mitigating constructive behaviour.”

jwc.nato.int/images/stories…

The importance of TAA is outlined below in a 2010 analysis undertaken by the Behavioural Dynamics Institute psychologist Dr Lee Rowland and psychological warfare expert Dr Steve Tatham.

files.ethz.ch/isn/119385/201…

"For it to have any chance of success, it must achieve at least four overarching objectives"

"Understanding the audience is the beginning and end of all military influence endeavours."

1) The precise identification of optimal Target Audiences.

"Without TAA, influence success is dependent upon randomness, luck and coincidence – in short, ‘a fluke’."

2) The measurement of the ‘influenceability’ of that audience.

"when undertaken properly - it is an extremely complex process and whilst its methodology is comparatively simple, its implementation is most certainly not."

3) Identification of the best process to influence that audience.

4) Produce and deploy the triggers that will effectively and measurably change the audience’s behaviour.

TAA:

1) Precise identification of optimal Target Audiences.

2) Measurement of the ‘influenceability’ of that audience.

3) Identify the best process to influence that audience.

4) Deploy the triggers that will effectively and measurably change the audience’s behaviour.

"We are masters of electronic intelligence, of human intelligence, of signal intelligence, open-source intelligence, and technical intelligence". - Tatham

globalsecurity.org/military/libra…

"TAA is now so well advanced that it must become a key component of future strategic decisionmaking."

TAA allows one to identify, in advance, key groups—who may not yet have emerged—through accurate behavioral profiling. The process also provides a measure
of “influenceability” of that groups"

globalsecurity.org/military/libra…

"In its entirety, this is an empirical process and one that places the audience at the absolute center of the entire campaign."

Any such program would involve a six-step solution:

Step 1: Identify what the audience was currently doing and thinking—and understand why. We might call this the Strategic Campaign Planning phase.

Step 2. Establish under what circumstances the audiences’ behaviors could be changed and which triggers were the strongest—this is the TAA phase, and one of its key steps is to benchmark current behavior because that data is vital for Step 6 later.

Step 3. Armed with this information, present strategic options to the client balancing cost, risk, and likely effect.

Step 4. Design the strategic intervention—the Campaign Intervention Strategy.

Step 5. Deploy the campaign.

Step 6. Assess the resultant change in the audience—the Measures of Effect (MOE).

"Between 2012-13, the
behavioral profiling of group behavior was properly
validated and verified by the UK Ministry of Defence
(MoD)." - Tatham

globalsecurity.org/military/libra…

"To understand TAA capabilities better, one of my final tasks in the UK Ministry of Defence last year was to define three tiers of TAA capability" - Tatham

Tier 1.

This is a multi-source, scientifically verified, diagnostic methodology undertaken in-country and in host language, and it is used to identify specific motivations for behaviour.

Tier 2.

Any primary research involving actual contact with the audiences of interest but, critically, it does not follow any specific scientifically verified deductive methodology.

Tier 3.

The least detailed TAA and is almost exclusively secondary research. This is typical remote, open source analysis of target groups, but these analyses are done in the language of the analyst as opposed to that of the target group.

"TAA can be undertaken covertly. Audience groups are not necessarily aware that they are the research subjects and government's role and/or third parties can be invisible. In short, it is a tried, tested and proven methodology." - Tatham

NATO StratCom will soon be an accredited training facility using Behavioural Dynamics Institute's "Target Audience Analysis Methodology" — a purposebuilt NATO course developed and delivered by SCL Group and IOTA Global of London, UK.

jwc.nato.int/images/stories…

TAA can measure 29 different psychological traits that are evaluated to create a behavioural profile grid.

Used to determine "key components that will influence a target group’s behavior."

"Assessing a target audience’s locus of control is essential to understanding what strategic communication has the capacity to accomplish vis-à-vis that audience." - Tatham

globalsecurity.org/military/libra…

Case Study: Nigerian elections

"A research project of the electorate to establish under what conditions the public might rise up against the government"

Source Credibility. This is a measure of the trustworthiness of a particular source.

"It is not enough for a message to reach its audience; that message must be accepted by, and thus influence the behaviour of, the target audience."

"TAA has been used very successfully in a series of applications and geographical regions. Increasingly, however, a new field of research has opened up that superficially appears to have potential to compete with TAA as an indicator of future behavior—social media analysis."

"Data generated by Twitter users and available through Twitter’s application programming interface by one study found that during the 1-week sampling period, roughly 20 percent of the tweets collected showed the user’s location to an accuracy of street level or better." -Tatham

Archive: AJP- 3.9: NATO DOCTRINE FOR JOINT TARGETING

Intelligence supports targeting by leading on TAA, providing a detailed picture of actor's capabilities, structure, organization, intentions, objectives and vulnerabilities - all in context.

sclgroup.online/archive

Archive: AJP- 3.9: NATO DOCTRINE FOR JOINT TARGETING

Allied Command Operations targeting input:

ACO provides the JFC with the following targeting-related products and guidance.

assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/upl…

Archive: sclgroup.online/archive

Brexit, Britain, and future war

The ‘Brexit’ vote is a sufficiently historic occurrence that it might engender a new narrative about Britain’s role in the world, with direct implications for defence policy.

stratcomcoe.org/academic-journ…

Target Audience Analysis (TAA) methodology, a refreshed Defence Advisory Notice system, the formation of a cross-Whitehall National Security Communications Committee and even the birth of ‘Twitter troops’ in the form of the British Army’s 77 Brigade.

stratcomcoe.org/download/file/…

Archive: sclgroup.online/archive

DEPARTMENT OF THE ARMY

"PSYOP doctrine indicates TAA is vital to understand what the target audience perceives as barriers to change, the role of significant social pressure groups, and the cost to change behavior."

fas.org/irp/doddir/arm…

"PSYOPS, Public Affairs, Information Operations, Target Audience Analysis, Social Intelligence and Strategic Communication are just some of the key areas in which we work." - SCL Defence

archive.is/r1ftW

"triggers and filters’ in a given population are based on a penetrating psychological understanding. We then apply our findings to behavioural change programmes and psychological operations with a quantifiable and tangible Measure of Effectiveness." - SCL

archive.is/asYWJ

"SCL Defence now supplies the world's leading militaries, including both the US and UK Departments of Defence.

Over the same period, SCL also offered its TAA methodology to governments and political Parties worldwide."

"These audiences could range from hostile enemies, insurgent groups or terrorist organisations to foreign workers, national associations or citizens in general." - SCL Defence

"AB-Target Audience Analysis, AB-MOE Assessment Analysis, Social and Cultural Intelligence, Operational Fielding.

Specialist teams who deal with research in conflict areas, most notably zero-footprint research and research into sensitive topics." -SCL

archive.is/oHfH2

"The BDi Methodology parameters and their use and measurement are the central components of the AB-TAA Influence Training." -SCL Defence

archive.is/dwHEL

"SCL Defence and the Behavioural Dynamics Institute provide a flexible range of training courses, which put trainees in direct contact with the team that is currently developing and deploying the Methodology on a daily basis." - SCL Defence

In the BDi methodology, TAA is the examination of a group with whom we wish to communicate through the use of valid and reliable scientific measurement tools. The BDi Methodology parameters and their use and measurement are the central components of the AB-TAA Influence Training.

SCL Defence

Behavioural Dynamics Institute:

Behavioural Dynamics Institute:

vimeo.com/user10364855

"Most soft power and influence solutions are based on Target Audience Analysis (TAA) research, and rightly so. Effective influence solutions require, therefore, effective research for decision making."

Behavioural Dynamics Institute, Royal Institute of Great Britain, London

"TAA requires bespoke instruments that have been designed for specific groups or audiences to uncover solutions to specific (often behavioural) problems, and therefore need to be centred on a specific structuring of the problem." - BDi

web.archive.org/web/2015042306…

"Do you believe there is an objective truth that can be measured and quantified?

Or do you believe that truth is ‘what works at the time’?

Perhaps you believe that truth is perception, or that reality is always shaped in interaction with others?"

web.archive.org/web/2015042306…

"There are four main worldviews to consider, and each worldview impacts the research design you will favour.

Analysing your worldview allows you to properly interrogate your assumptions, and thereby to design your research more effectively."

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"The Influence Advisory Panel aims to set standards for influence research, helping decision makers get the highest quality research – research that is accurate, and that allows them to make those decisions." - BDi

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General Andrew Mackay is the chairman of the Influence Advisory Panel. His distinguished career in the British Army included command of 52 Brigade in Afghanistan, for which he was awarded CBE.

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The Influence Advisory Panel consists of experts from academia, politics, military, government and civil society, supported by practitioners, researchers and analysts from business and international organisations.

"Chaired by Major General Andrew Mackay CBE, the panel provides a focus for the development of standards in influence and soft power capabilities." - IAP

In 1990, Nigel Oakes established the Behavioural Dynamics Institute as a centre for research and development in the embryonic Influence field, which resulted in the development of Target Audience Analysis, AB-MOE and Group Bounded Research

"Nigel is a regular lecturer at the Pentagon, the US Department of State and NATO and is an advisor to the UK MOD on Influence Capability development." - IAP

Nigel Oakes on Nazi propaganda techniques:

Hitler "didn't have a problem with the Jews at all," but "leveraged an artificial enemy" to appease his supporters.

Oakes founded SCL Group, parent company of Cambridge Analytica.

parliament.uk/documents/comm…

"SCL Group is a logical product of poor regulation, weak oversight and legal loopholes in digital persuasion. Digital communication industries are dominated by monopolies such as Facebook who have been incentivised to abuse our data." - Dr Briant

Evidence provided by Dr Briant to the
@CommonsCMS committee.

"References made by Nigel Oakes from SCL and Andy Wigmore from Leave .EU regarding the propaganda techniques developed by the Nazis are particularly concerning"

parliament.uk/business/commi…

"As an expert in propaganda, I conducted interviews with key figures at SCL, Cambridge Analytica and Leave .EU for research projects on the #Trump and #Brexit campaigns long before the data scandal was made public." - Dr Briant

emma-briant.co.uk

Supplementary written evidence on Cambridge Analytica, Leave .EU and Eldon Insurance:

1. CA's level of involvement in the Leave .EU campaign, whether and how CA methods were used
2. What data was used in the Leave .EU campaign and how was it deployed

data.parliament.uk/writtenevidenc…

Leave. EU

"Cambridge Analytica.. they sort of gave a bit of a backbone on how to do behavioural targeting and micro-targeting, and with psychographic targeting, ‘they provided some backbone for how to do it and then a lot of it was just kind of handed over to the campaign staff"

Phase I of Cambridge Analytica’s plan seems to have been carried out with Cambridge Analytica. - Dr Briant

parliament.uk/documents/comm…

Andy Wigmore seems to indicate that Leave.EU also deployed parts of ‘Phase II’ of Cambridge Analytica’s plan – Phase II involved ‘online surveys’ - Dr Briant

"Political Microtargeting is a process whereby individuals across a voter population are predictively modeled to understand where they fit amongst the Target Audiences identified by our research." - Cambridge Analytica

My own evidence and that of Brittany Kaiser directly contradict the conclusions drawn by the Electoral Commission which declare ‘the relationship did not develop beyond initial scoping work. - Dr Briant

parliament.uk/documents/comm…

"Influence, the art of subtle persuasion, would form the backbone of our effort.

The population was the prize."

- Mackay (52nd Infantry Brigade)

Unroll available on Thread Reader

"Cambridge Analytica would target those who were more prone to impulsive anger or conspiratorial thinking than average citizens, introducing narratives via Facebook ads or articles the firm knew were likely to inflame people with these traits" - Wylie

"Cambridge Analytica claimed it played a crucial role in Brexit.

Its Canadian offshoot, AIQ, was the main beneficiary of the spending by the official Vote Leave campaign.

Boris Johnson was the most high profile member of Vote Leave."