Propaganda & Public Opinion

Propaganda & Public Opinion

1. cognitive dissonance between what you want/need

2. Freud psychoanalysis

   • conscious/subconscious
   • no access to modern technologies

3. The Political Brain (Weston)

   • emotions important in decision-making
   • emotions, desire drive reason
   • brain shuts off negative emotions

4. Creel Committee

   • designed to influence US public opinion regarding USA participation in WW1
     • propaganda campaigns to persuade people

5. Bernays

   • universal education
     • educate man to control environment
   • universal suffrage
     • public mind is equal to strength
   • propaganda
     • powerful tool to gain approval from masses

6. Social Representation Theory (Joffe)

   • interaction of individual with social environment
     • when threatened, take cues from social environment

7. Problems of Elites

   • Market Saturation
     • industrial production
     • selling max amount of products allowed by market/running out of people to sell to
   • Rise of the Crowd
     • powerful for destruction
     • elite = rational crowd = impulsive