Lessons from China - The Formation of a Social Credit System: Profiling, Reputation Scoring, Social Engineering

Against the background of China's Social Credit policies to foster pro-social behavior, this study provides a conceptual underpinning for such incentive schemes by defining their underlying elements and parameters based on official Chinese government statements and related literature. The first element is the creation of digital profiles of individuals based on an interpretation of real-world interaction and behavior by combining various data sets to gain an extensive description of each character. The second element is the quantification of those profiles by defining a multifaceted construct of ‘social reputation’ and transferring the derived profile into a single score. The third element is the delineation of pro-social behavior. The two central control parameters are the policy for the allocation of merit scores as well as the determination of incentives and sanctions based on respective scores. Each element is examined and discussed in the context of current independent applications in different social settings. Within this frame of reference, the study provides a framework of potential effects that a social credit system may have on public and private life.