Uploaded January 2023 | Updated September 2026, 3 hours ago
Dr. Martin Hilbert
University of California – Davis
Digital Immunity: consciousness as antidote to digital harms
Abstract: We hypothesize that individuals with psychological traits typical for self-transcended individuals show natural resistance to psychological harms from online social media. We theorize that this ‘digital immunity’ is a manifestation of people’s consciousness development. We tested this hypothesis in two experiments involving over 4,000 subjects in extensive online experiments. We can explain over 80% of the variance in social media harms with three consciousness variables that reflect self-transcendence, namely ‘self-acceptance’, ‘self-awareness’, and ‘equanimity’. More: papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=4228106
Background: Social media’s persuasive technologies rely on the predictability of an un-reflective or automatic reaction to a previously identified digital stimulus. Tailor-made triggers of predictable responses are often identified with machine learning based on big data traces. This mechanism works best when the user unconsciously follows the stimulus-response chain. The psychological concept of self-transcendence characterizes a later stage in the developmental evolution of human consciousness that is thought to be highly correlated with the exhibition of self-reflection/self-knowing, the realization of interconnectedness of the self and other complex adaptive systems, an expansion of personal boundaries through a nondual understanding of reality, and a present moment awareness that provides cognitive space (less dependence) with causal event sequences in time. We hypothesized that this autonomy lessens conditioning on unconscious stimuli-response pairing. In other words, we hypothesized that individuals who started to transcend the self-identification with their own mind (self-identified thoughts and emotions) have evolved a natural immunity to digital manipulations. After finding a model and confirming its accuracy with a statistical hold-out sample, we ran a pre-registered replication study and confirmed our findings.
Bio: Martin Hilbert is Professor at the University of California, Davis, where he tries to better understand the role of digitalization and algorithmification in the development of complex social systems. He holds doctorates in Economics and Social Sciences (2006) and in Communication (2012), is associated with Communication and Computer Science at UCD, chairs the campus’s designated emphasis in Computational Social Science, and currently teaches over 50,000 students on computational methods on Coursera. During the first half of his career, he researched as a tenured United Nations Economic Affairs Officer at the UN Secretariat, where he spearheaded the creation of the first Digital Action Plan for Latin America and the Caribbean. He has provided hands-on technical assistance in the field of digital development to dozens of governments and large corporations. The more he studies the role of our digital extensions of the mind, the more he get intrigued by the role of the human mind itself, and how different stages of consciousness interact, shape, and can potentially guide our cognitive fusion with the evolving metaverse.
From the 2022 Annual Society for Consciousness Studies conference. SCS conferences reflects the values and goals of The Society for Consciousness Studies, a professional scholarly organization that honors work of quality from all authentic scholarly traditions, including philosophical, psychological, sociological, and other scientific understandings of consciousness. Within this broad framework the society explores potential advances beyond the classical and postmodern knowledge paradigms that have dominated science and scholarship during the past century. You can learn more at: https://consc.org.
Dr. Martin Hilbert
University of California – Davis
Digital Immunity: consciousness as antidote to digital harms
Abstract: We hypothesize that individuals with psychological traits typical for self-transcended individuals show natural resistance to psychological harms from online social media. We theorize that this ‘digital immunity’ is a manifestation of people’s consciousness development. We tested this hypothesis in two experiments involving over 4,000 subjects in extensive online experiments. We can explain over 80% of the variance in social media harms with three consciousness variables that reflect self-transcendence, namely ‘self-acceptance’, ‘self-awareness’, and ‘equanimity’. More: papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=4228106
Background: Social media’s persuasive technologies rely on the predictability of an un-reflective or automatic reaction to a previously identified digital stimulus. Tailor-made triggers of predictable responses are often identified with machine learning based on big data traces. This mechanism works best when the user unconsciously follows the stimulus-response chain. The psychological concept of self-transcendence characterizes a later stage in the developmental evolution of human consciousness that is thought to be highly correlated with the exhibition of self-reflection/self-knowing, the realization of interconnectedness of the self and other complex adaptive systems, an expansion of personal boundaries through a nondual understanding of reality, and a present moment awareness that provides cognitive space (less dependence) with causal event sequences in time. We hypothesized that this autonomy lessens conditioning on unconscious stimuli-response pairing. In other words, we hypothesized that individuals who started to transcend the self-identification with their own mind (self-identified thoughts and emotions) have evolved a natural immunity to digital manipulations. After finding a model and confirming its accuracy with a statistical hold-out sample, we ran a pre-registered replication study and confirmed our findings.
Bio: Martin Hilbert is Professor at the University of California, Davis, where he tries to better understand the role of digitalization and algorithmification in the development of complex social systems. He holds doctorates in Economics and Social Sciences (2006) and in Communication (2012), is associated with Communication and Computer Science at UCD, chairs the campus’s designated emphasis in Computational Social Science, and currently teaches over 50,000 students on computational methods on Coursera. During the first half of his career, he researched as a tenured United Nations Economic Affairs Officer at the UN Secretariat, where he spearheaded the creation of the first Digital Action Plan for Latin America and the Caribbean. He has provided hands-on technical assistance in the field of digital development to dozens of governments and large corporations. The more he studies the role of our digital extensions of the mind, the more he get intrigued by the role of the human mind itself, and how different stages of consciousness interact, shape, and can potentially guide our cognitive fusion with the evolving metaverse.
From the 2022 Annual Society for Consciousness Studies conference. SCS conferences reflects the values and goals of The Society for Consciousness Studies, a professional scholarly organization that honors work of quality from all authentic scholarly traditions, including philosophical, psychological, sociological, and other scientific understandings of consciousness. Within this broad framework the society explores potential advances beyond the classical and postmodern knowledge paradigms that have dominated science and scholarship during the past century. You can learn more at: https://consc.org.
