Age of Propaganda : The Everyday Use and Abuse of Persuasion

by Pratkanis, Anthony; Aronson, Elliot

• ISBN13: 9780716731085
• ISBN10: 0716731088
• Edition: Revised
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2001-03-14
• Publisher: W. H. Freeman

Summary

We live in an age of propaganda. Americans consume 57% of the world's advertising while representing only 6% of the population, and half of our waking hours are spent with the mass media. Persuasion has always been integral to the democratic process - it's how we make decisions, elect governments, do business, and resolve disputes, but increasingly, thoughtful discussion is being replaced with simplistic sound bites, manipulative messages, and deceptive propaganda tactics. An eye-opening analysis of the use and abuse of persuasion in daily life,Age of Propagandareveals how persuasion influences our behavior, which propaganda strategies are most commonly used today, and why some techniques work better than others. Drawing on the history of propaganda and modern research in social psychology, the authors show how the tactics used by political campaigners, sales agents, advertisers, televangelists, demagogues, and others, often take advantage of our emotions by appealing to our deepest fears and most irrational hopes, creating a distorted vision of the world we live in. Thoroughly revised and updated, this new edition of Age of Propaganda includes coverage of the Clinton/Lewinsky scandal, recent election campaigns, the rise of talk radio, teen suicide, U.F.O abductions, the Columbine shootings, and novel propaganda tactics based on hypocrisy and false allegations. Also included is a completely new chapter on how to protect yourself from unwanted propaganda. An invaluable guide to today's message-laden world,Age of Propagandaprovides us with the knowledge we need to understand how manipulative messages work, how to deal with them sensibly, and how to use persuasion wisely and effectively.

Author Biography

Anthony Pratkanis is professor of psychology at the University of California, Santa Cruz.

Elliot Aronson is one of our nation's most eminent social psychologists. He is professor emeritus at the University of California, Santa Cruz.

Table of Contents

Why We Wrote This Book	xi
Our Age of Propaganda	1	(20)
THE PSYCHOLOGY OF EVERYDAY PERSUASION
Mysterious Influence	21	(12)
Mindless Propaganda, Thoughtful Persuasion	33	(7)
The Rationalizing Animal	40	(8)
The Four Stratagems of Influence	48	(23)
PRE-PERSUASION: SETTING THE STAGE FOR EFFECTIVE INFLUENCE
Words of Influence	71	(8)
Pictures in Our Heads	79	(8)
Saddam Hussein: The Hitler of Baghdad?	87	(6)
A Questionable Persuasion	93	(7)
The Power of Decoys	100	(3)
The Psychology of Factoids	103	(18)
COMMUNICATOR CREDIBILITY: REAL AND MANUFACTURED
The Credible Communicator	121	(7)
Breakfast of Champions, Junk Food for the Self	128	(4)
How Do You Persuade if Everyone Knows You are Untrustworthy, Unbelievable, and Disliked?	132	(7)
The Manufacture of Credibility	139	(7)
Prizefighter Slays Eleven with One Look: The Influence of Mass Media Models	146	(11)
THE MESSAGE AND HOW IT IS DELIVERED
Packages	157	(9)
Self-Sell	166	(5)
Naked Attics and Neighborhood War Heroes: On Vividness in Communication	171	(8)
Why Do They Keep Repeating the Same Ads?	179	(6)
If You Have Nothing to Say---Distract Them	185	(3)
If You Want to Gain an Inch, Ask for a Mile---Sometimes!	188	(8)
Protagoras' Ideal: One-Sided Puffery versus Two-Sided Debate	196	(11)
EMOTIONAL APPEALS: TOUCH THE HEART, PERSUADE THE MIND
The Fear Appeal	207	(9)
The Granfalloon Technique	216	(7)
Guilt Sells	223	(7)
What Is the Influence of One Flower Given?	230	(5)
The Committed Heart	235	(6)
To Practice What You Preach	241	(9)
The Psychology of Scarcity and the Mystique of Phantoms	250	(11)
WHEN INFORMATION FAILS: THE CHALLENGE OF PROPAGANDA TO SOCIETY
Education or Propaganda?	261	(7)
What Is News?	268	(12)
On the Ineffectiveness of Information Campaigns	280	(5)
Subliminal Sorcery: Who Is Seducing Whom?	285	(10)
Persuasion Direct	295	(7)
How to Become a Cult Leader	302	(15)
Propaganda in the Third Reich: A Case for Uncertainty	317	(12)
COUNTERACTING THE TACTICS OF PROPAGANDA
Is Forewarned Forearmed? Or How to Really Resist Propaganda	329	(11)
What We Can Do to Stop Propaganda in Its Tracks	340	(9)
Peitho's Children	349	(8)
References	357	(42)
Index	399	(16)
About the Authors	415

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