Abstract
SCIENCE SERVICE of Washington, D.C., has published under the title “Propaganda Protection” a series of short articles forming an exposition of the methods and aims of war propaganda. The chemist and physicist are frequently criticized for discovering poison gases and high explosives, but without the will of the fighter the destructive compounds would be powerless. The aim of the propagandist is to make people willing to act in a particular way, and his general means are the arousal of emotion and the stifling of reason. The specific methods are the appeal to prejudice and hate by the use of slogans, by the demand for haste since delay may bring reason into play, by the use of statements that can neither be proved nor disproved, by concealing the source of the statements, and by persuading the hearer or reader to associate particular evils, for example, conspiracy, plotting, oppression, injustice, and particular virtues, for example, bravery, sympathy, humanity, patriotism, with some particular creed, party, or country. The propagandist knows the weaknesses of mankind and in many cases consciously exploits them for his own ends. The general methods are not new in the history of mankind, but the development of the means of communication by travel and radio has made all of us much more vulnerable to the propagandist attack. It is commonly asserted that more knowledge is the best immunizing agent against propaganda; but to be effective we need much more knowledge of our own mental make-up, as well as greater knowledge of facts outside ourselves. It is unfortunate that our knowledge of psychology lags so far behind our knowledge of other aspects of reality.
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Protection against Propaganda. Nature 142, 867 (1938). https://doi.org/10.1038/142867a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/142867a0