Jennifer Jacquet

Explores the social nature of shame, and the ways in which it might be used, sparingly and pointedly, to promote political change and social reform.

New Uses for an Old Tool

Is Shame Necessary?

Knowledge is power. Which is why the rich and powerful don't want you to have it. The Playbook is an exposé of the extraordinary lengths that corporations will go to in order to spread disinformation and deny the scientific facts - around climate change, public health risks and worker safety - when they don't suit their agenda. Written in the form of a corporate handbook for tobacco, oil and pharmaceutical company executives, it is a litany of obfuscation techniques, denial, delays and outright lies, including: how to recruit an academic 'expert' who is willing to compromise their integrity (or is just short of cash), how to massage the statistics, how to use legal and even physical intimidation against reporters and activists, and how, just as in a casino, to keep your customers comfortable, unquestioning, unthinking and playing along for as long as possible. Part satire, part social history, part guide to resistance, The Playbook is a charge sheet against the powerful. It shows us how, by understanding the methods and motives of disinformation campaigns, we may be able to outwit them.

How to Deny Science, Sell Lies, and Make a Killing in the Corporate World

The Playbook

An urgent, illuminating exploration of the social nature of shame and of how it might be used to promote large-scale political change and social reform. In cultures that champion the individual, guilt is advertised as the cornerstone of conscience. But while guilt holds individuals to personal standards, it is powerless in the face of corrupt institutions. In recent years, we as consumers have sought to assuage our guilt about flawed social and environmental practices and policies by, for example, buying organic foods or fair-trade products. Unless nearly everyone participates, however, the impact of individual consumer consciousness is ineffective. Is Shame Necessary? presents us with a trenchant case for public shaming as a nonviolent form of resistance that can challenge corporations and even governments to change policies and behaviors that are detrimental to the environment. Jennifer Jacquet argues that public shaming, when it has been retrofitted for the age of social media and aimed in the proper direction, can help compensate for the limitations of guilt in a globalized world. Jacquet leaves us with a new understanding of how public shame, when applied in the right way and at the right time, has the capacity to keep us from failing other species in life’s fabric and, ultimately, from failing ourselves.

+++ Schämt euch – und verändert die Welt! +++ Wieder mit Plastiktüten nach Hause gekommen? Das Billig-T-Shirt aus dem Discounter war einfach zu günstig? Schon wieder Essensreste weggeworfen? – Es gibt viele Gründe, sich zu schämen. Und ebenso viele Gründe, endlich etwas zu ändern. Die Umweltwissenschaftlerin Jennifer Jacquet untersucht, inwiefern das Schamgefühl unser gesellschaftliches Miteinander bestimmt. Spannend und leicht verständlich erklärt sie die Ursprünge und die Evolution dieses für uns alle prägenden Gefühls. Sie macht deutlich, wie wichtig es ist, dass wir uns schämen – denn mit der Scham kommt die Erkenntnis. So entsteht ein brillanter Gegenentwurf zu allen bisherigen Einschätzungen dieses uralten Begleiters: Jacquet zeigt, wie wir über das Schamgefühl gesteuert werden und es als politisches Werkzeug für eine bessere Welt benutzen können. Ein äußerst kluges und provozierendes Buch einer der interessantesten jungen Wissenschaftlerinnen unserer Zeit.

Jennifer Jacquet

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