If your doctor injects you with a vaccine without your consent, or a stranger strokes the back of your neck on a packed train, we would think that they have wronged you, morally speaking. And we might capture this wrong by saying that they have trespassed on your body or infringed your right against bodily interference. By contrast, if a computer game designer uses loot boxes to boost your desire to keep playing a game, or a video platform uses subliminal imagery to create positive associations with particular products, we would probably not be inclined to reach for the concepts ‘mental interference’ or ‘mental trespass’. But perhaps we should. In my just-published book, Protecting Minds, I argue that, just as we all possess a moral right against interference with our bodies, so too we possess a right against mental interference. I also offer an account of the scope of the right—of the forms of mental influence that infringe it—and, on my account, loot boxes and subliminal imagery likely fall within this scope.
The book is an output of my European Research Council-funded project ‘ProtMind’ [grant number 819757], and thanks to that funding, the book is available to read gratis online. If you’re interested in the ethics of nudging, manipulation, persuasive digital technologies, or other forms of influence on others’ minds and behaviour, please take a look!