Russia’s espionage efforts exploited evolutionary psychology.
The Mueller report describes various activities that Russian intelligence pursued to influence the 2016 U.S. presidential election, including hacking emails, trolling social media sites and covertly taking out online ads to get their message across.
Mostly what you hear is that the Russians did these things because they preferred Donald Trump over Hillary Clinton, or that, afraid of a true democracy emerging in their own country, the Kremlin wanted to de-legitimize, and destabilize American democracy so that freedom-oriented Russians couldn’t hold America up as a shining example of the art of the possible.
I suppose there is some truth to all of these assertions, but, as a neuroscientist and former intelligence officer, I see a different dimension of Russia’s recent espionage efforts: the masterful use of evolutionary psychology to weaken a strategic opponent on the world stage.
Originally Published In Psychology Today
© Dr. Eric Haseltine
Dr. Eric Haseltine is an author, futurist, and neuroscientist. He has held senior executive positions in private industry and the public sector, including serving as the associate director and CTO for national intelligence at the Office of the Director of National Intelligence. Eric holds 15 patents in optics, special effects, and electronic media. He has published in Discover magazine, Brain Research and Society for Neuroscience Proceedings, and Psychology Today. His books include Long Fuse, Big Bang, The Listening Cure, with Dr. Chris Gilbert, and Brain Safari.