MBTA Communities Working Group: Primal Brain

At a May 8, 2025 meeting, Megan Driscoll and Steven Gandt discuss how to manipulate Duxbury residents' primitive instincts in order to get them to vote for MBTA Communities rezoning.

Since this piece was written, Megan Driscoll has resigned from the MBTA Communities Working Group. The story remains important, however, because it demonstrates that the working group’s communications strategy is designed not to inform but rather to manipulate.

It remains uncertain as to whether the committee as currently constituted can provide the Finance Committee, the Selectboard, and Town Meeting with a comprehensive picture of the risks and benefits of passing a multifamily zoning bylaw. As such, the Selectboard may want to consider removing the article from the warrant even if a decision about a preliminary injunction on the town’s court case is not reached before the July 16 Special Town Meeting.

May 8, 2025 — Duxbury, Marshfield, Halifax, Hamilton, Winthrop, Holden, Wrentham, Middleton, Weston, Wenham, Hanson…

Those are the names of towns with compliance deadlines of July 14, 2025 that are challenging the MBTA Communities law in court.

Now add to that list Dracut, East Bridgewater, Hanover, Tewksbury, and Wilmington.

Those are the towns with the same deadline that have refused to pass rezoning.

For good measure, you could add Marblehead, which is out of compliance pending a referendum; Middleborough, which struck a side deal so it didn’t have to comply; and Milton, whose lawsuit struck the guidelines down and which is still considered noncompliant.

Now say the list of towns out loud, really fast, blending the names together: Duxbury, Marshfield, Halifax, Winthrop, Holden, Wrentham, Middleton, Weston, Wenham, Hanson, Dracut, East Bridgewater, Hanover, Tewksbury, and Wilmington, Marblehead, Middleborough, Milton.

Do you want to join the lawsuit because everyone else is doing it? Do you want to vote against rezoning because so many other towns have done so?

Apparently, MBTA Communities Working Group Chair Steven Gandt and former member Megan Driscoll think you are just that stupid.

At the May 8, 2025 meeting of the working group, they had a different list of names to recite: Millbury, Chelmsford, Westford, North Andover, Acton, Sudbury, Whitman, Westwood, Walpole, Auburn, Rockland, Tyngsboro, Medfield…

They indicated that they hoped that if Duxbury residents realized that these towns have recently passed zoning changes, they would pass zoning because they want to go along with the group.

“Primal brain” is what Driscoll called it.

In other words, they did not make plans to give residents the information they need to think carefully about what’s best for the future of Duxbury but instead they designed a communication tactic to goad them into making an unthinking, instinctive decision.

This type of communication is known as the bandwagon effect, a type of informal fallacy also called argumentum ad populum.

See this article on propaganda techniques.

Informal fallacies are often used in propaganda because they can be psychologically convincing even though they are based on faulty logic. In this case, just because everyone else is doing something doesn’t mean that what they are doing is a good idea.

The List

Here’s Driscoll reading the list aloud, leading Gandt to realize that they should include the information in their presentation because it provided the impression of momentum.

Gandt: Taking a step back on that. That might be helpful.

Driscoll: Very.

Gandt: We can communicate that as part of the presentation,” said Gandt.

Driscoll: Yes.

Gandt: Going through the list of those towns that just passed it.

Driscoll: It’s a big list just in the last few weeks.

Gandt: Just in the last few weeks. Yes, I think it gives the perception of momentum.

A Brief Consideration of Some Context

Working group member Alicia Babcock then poured some cold water on their plans: towns had all passed rezoning at the same time because they had their annual town meetings at the same time. Gandt briefly considered her points before returning to his discussion with Driscoll.

Babcock: That’s cause it’s spring and everybody’s having their town meetings.

Gandt: Well, yes, the other thing you need to understand is how many of those are adjacent communities and how many of those are adjacent small communities because adjacent small communities, they don’t have to do anything until the end of the year. But if they are adjacent like we are, we’ve gotta do that by mid July.

Babcock: I haven’t had a chance to break it out like that.

The Primal Brain

While Gandt and Babcock spoke, Driscoll was staring at her phone, apparently looking at a map of towns that have passed multifamily zoning. She indicated that the map would activate viewers’ primal brains.

Driscoll: The map is like a pretty interesting map. If you look at it, just, you know,… primal brain.

Gandt: There's a lot of green emerging in there.

Driscoll: There certainly is.

Deciding How to Include the List in the Presentation

Driscoll and Gandt then discussed how to include the information in the presentation. Babcock agreed with Gandt that there were too many towns to list on the presentation. Driscoll said that they should put the information on the Planning Board website, and Gandt added they could have a list ready as part of their comments for presentations.

This is not an isolated incident.

The Complete Clip

Regarding the information at the top of the page. The situation with the lawsuits and compliance is complicated. Two of the towns challenging the MBTA rezoning law in court are doing so through lawsuits filed on behalf of ten or more taxpayers. Even if towns fail to pass rezoning bylaws, many will remain in interim compliance until the July 14, 2025 deadline for compliance.