EAS190 class slides: Intersubjectivity and Propaganda (Complete slides)

1. Intersubjectivity and Propaganda
The “Mind”
Persuasion and Propaganda Class slides, Keren Wang 2023

3. Previous
Section
Walton:
● Congregatio de Propaganda Fide (p.383)
● Public discourse (386)
● Argumentum ad populum (388-390), endoxic
arguments (391)
● Dialectical shift (396)
● Common characteristics of propaganda (396-400):
dialogic, social groups, argumentative & persuasive,
emotive, eristic, *one-sided, indifference to logic,
goal-directed, justified by results
Pedro:
● Primary filters (p.1871): ownership, sponsorship,
sourcing, disciplinary mechanism, ideology
● Secondary filters (1872-1873): journalistic standards,
technology

4. Previous
Section (cont.)
Wang:
● Civil religion / state cult
● Heaven’s Mandate
● Logographic and alphabetic writing systems
● Oracle bone pyromancy
● Literati
Confucius:
● Zheng ming
Paramore:
● Many facets of Confucianism: philosophy, ethics,
values, national religion, civil religion, world religion

5. Zheng ming:
a tale of two
constitutions
➔ Socialism (w/ Chinese characteristics)
➔ “Rubber stamp” Congress dominated by a
single party
➔ Real legislative power held by CPC
Politburo (中共中央政治局)
➔ Never strike down unconstitutional
legislation
➔ Representative democracy (w/
Japanese characteristics)
➔ “Rubber stamp” Diet dominated by a
single party
➔ Real legislative power held by Cabinet
Legislation Bureau (内閣法制局)
➔ Almost never strike down
unconstitutional legislation

6. “Ritualology” of
Propaganda
Socialization & Reconfiguration:
Ritual transactions between individuals, social groups,
organizations, institutions
Propaganda
Law & policy
Social
values &
beliefs
Internationalization:
From explicit ritual repetitions
to tacit collective memory
Externalization:
From tacit collective memory
to explicit ritual performance

7. Digital poster for
N17 Mass Direct
Action by
OccupyWallSt.ORG
(Nov. 14, 2011)

8. The “Tank Man”
Image source Wikimedia
Commons, 2020

9. “Menacing” Sensorium? - reconstructing poster’s color arrangements… (1)

10. “Menacing” Sensorium? - reconstructing poster’s color arrangements… (2)

11. Keren Wang, April 2019
“Menacing colors” - tapping into a transnational public memory trigger (3)

12. Psychology of
Propaganda -
Memory Error
Misinformation effect: tendency for post-event
information to “rewrite” the original memory of
the event.
Absentmindedness: low attention; hyperfocus;
distraction
Confabulation: tendency to produce false
memories at both individual and collective levels
Transience: memory gaps and errors over time
Misattribution: correct information but
incorrect source attribution
Psyche Revived by Cupid's Kiss by Antonio Canova
Keren Wang, SP 2022

13. Psychology of
Propaganda -
Cognitive Bias
Anchoring: tendency hold one’s belief when presented with
contradicting evidence
Apophenia: tendency to draw connections b/w unrelated
information
Confirmation bias: tendency to search for and consume
information selectively, in a way that confirms our
preconceptions
Dissonance: tendency to simultaneously hold contradictory or
incompatible views and beliefs
Embodied cognition: tendency to process information
differently based on the physical state of our body
Framing: tendency to draw different conclusions from the
same event
Misattribution: correct information but incorrect source
attribution (based on one’s cognitive biases)
Keren Wang, SP 2022

14. Social-Psychology
of Propaganda
Conformity: tendency to align our values,
behavior, and belief with collective normative
standards
Compliance: tendency to appear to agree with
others but and keep our dissenting opinions private
Identification: tendency to change our belief and
behavior due to the influence of those we admire
or identify with
Internalization: tendency to be influenced by
those who are closest and most important to us
Social contagion: behavior, emotions, and rumors
spreading spontaneously via social interactions
Keren Wang, SP 2022

15. Social-Psychology
of Persuasion and
Propaganda in
“always-on”
society
Non-human agents: bots, AI generated contents…
Swarm behavior: brigading, DDoS, doxing,
memes, troll-farming…
Hyperreal time: rapid, continuous, automated
production, dissemination, and reconfiguration of
discourse fracture and accelerate the unfolding of
real-time events.
Hypermediated space: echo chambers, filter
bubbles, internet sovereignty…
Keren Wang, SP 2022

16. Quiz 2 student
feedback
1. Overview of important historical figures and their
contribution to propaganda
2. Too much class activities (qz1), too much lecture
(qz2)
3. How does Confucianism relate to propaganda?
4. Examples of Confucian rituals in modern days?
5. How does Confucianism relate to the legal process
in E. Asia?
6. What Confucianism actually consists of in its
beliefs?

17. What Confucianism actually consists of in its beliefs?
Manifests in everyday life as deeds rather than creed
➔ E.g. Classroom etiquette, dining etiquette, workplace etiquette,
honorifics (敬語), wedding & funeral traditions…
Relational (in contrast to individualistic), virtue ethics (in
contrast to consequentialist & deontological ethics)
➔ 仁 Ren - humanistic care (fundamental concern of being a human is our
relations with others)
➔ 五倫 Five cardinal relations: Superior-subordinate, parent-child, b/w
spouses, b/w siblings, and b/w friends,
➔ Cardinal virtues: 忠 loyalty , 孝 filial piety, 悌 fraternity/sorority, 信
trustworthiness, 禮 ritual propriety, 義 righteousness, 廉 honor, 恥
humility

18. Excerpts from
Persuasion and
Propaganda –
the Hundred
Schools of
Thought
Confucian notion of Keji-fuli 剋己復禮
➔ Suppress the ego and return to rituals
➔ One’s speech and writing must be consistent
with their formally established status and
position
➔ Propaganda delivered by the appropriate
agent, through the appropriate channel, at the
appropriate place & occasion
Legalist concepts according to Shang Jun Shu
➔ Motivated by self-interest, but compromised by
insatiable greed
➔ Clear, uniform, predictable awards &
punishments, incentives & disincentives

19. Excerpts from
Persuasion and
Propaganda –
the Hundred
Schools of
Thought (cont.)
Mohist concept of Suo Ran (所染 Dyeing)
➔ Individuation and socialization
➔ Mutual-influence
➔ 非獨染絲然也，國亦有染 “This is true not only
with silk dyeing; even a country changes its
colour in response to its influences.”
Daoist concepts of Xing and Wu wei
➔ Xing: human nature driven by (1) biological
drives, (2) habits, (3) spontaneous outbursts
➔ Wu wei: inexertion, non-forceful, not explicit,
feels “natural”

20. Persuasion by not persuading - Wú
wèi & Bù zhēng
● Centrality of wú wèi (inexertion) & bù zhēng
(non-adversarial) in Daoist philosophy on persuasion.
● “Those who are wú wèi are without voice and shape,
and those without voice and shape can see without
being seen, hear without being heard. How splendid!”
《文子》
● How effective would a piece of propaganda be if its
target audience could easily recognize it being
propaganda?

21. Collectivist sense of merit &
credibility
Reproduction literati class via formalized
meritocratic civil exam system
➔ Based on Confucian classics and historical
texts: Reproduction of unified collective
memory
➔ Ritual framework for examining the abilities
and loyalty of ministers, holding them
accountable under unified rules
➔ Governing populations speaking different
languages under a unified public
information platform
➔ Sustaining highly centralized governance
across vast territories
➔ Spread across E. Asia

22. Embodied / enclothed cognition
Enclothed Cognition [1]: “physically wearing a lab
coat increased selective attention compared to not
wearing a lab coat”
White coat syndrome [2]: elevated blood pressure
and anxiety level in formal “white coat” clinical
interactions
Keren Wang, SP 2022

23. Prime Minister
Abe attend the
Enthronement
Ceremony of
Emperor
Naruhito, Oct 22,
2019
Image courtesy of 首相官邸ホーム
ページ

24. Authority behind
Uniformity & Anonymity
Left: Emperor Naruhito as Crown Prince, 1993
Left: 16th Century portrait of Ming scholar official Shen En《松江邦彥畫像》
Keren Wang CAS 420 Lecture Slides
Authority articulated by the precise reenactment of ritual
attires:
1. Distinguishes the authority figure from the rest
of the population
2. in conformity with historically established
standard
Identification & Internalization: tendency to be
influenced by those who we identify with (family,
friends, role models)
Conformity: aligning one’s values, behavior, and belief
with collective standards
Compliance: maintaining the appearance of agreeing
with others while keeping dissenting opinions private
Embodied cognition: tendency to process information
differently based on the physical state of our body

25. 士大夫 The
Literati (Scholar
Officials)
Left: Paul Georg von
Möllendorff (1848 - 1901)
wearing the Literati robe during
his service at the court of the
Kingdom of Korea
Right: Vietnamese scholar
officials, late 19th century

26. Ritualology of Uniformity
Left: Ming dynasty (1391-1526)
official in court uniform: black
wool cap signifies his civil official
statues, the mandarin square on
his chest indicates he is a
scholar-bureaucrat of third rank.
Right: 17th century European
plague doctor in uniform
Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons
Keren Wang, all rights reserved 2023

27. Keji Fuli applied
in propaganda
➔ “Suppress the ego and return
to rituals”
➔ Public image must be
consistent with formally
established role
➔ Collectivity, uniformity,
conformity
➔ Legitimacy and authority via
formal ritual attires and ritual
props
Top right: Ten Ming Dynasty Officials Who Passed
The Imperial Examination In 1464 (painted in 1503).
Bottom right: The US Joint Chiefs of Staff in 2017.

28. US Surgeon
General: A Case
Study of Zheng
ming and Wu wei
Right: Vivek H. Murthy, MD. 19th and 21st
Surgeon General of the United States. Note
the uniform and insignia of a vice admiral.

29. 1
2
3
Week 5
reading
Elley - “The rebirth of the West begins with you”
Self-improvement as radicalisation on 4Chan
Fang and Repnikova, Demystifying Little Pink
Otsuka - World and Variation the Reproduction and
Consumption of Narrative

31. (Anti)Social Media Collectivism:
ネット右翼, 4Chan, “Little Pink”
Apolitical fandom -> politically “borderline”
Propagandist? Target audience?

32. Narrative
Consumption
and invention
“[A]s narrative consumption
motivates the excessive
consumption of the kind
shown by the desperate child
consumers of Bikkuriman
stickers, it also bears within it
the possibility of a new stage
wherein consumers
themselves begin to create
commodities and consume
them on their own terms."
Otsuka Eiji, Narrative Consumption
Keren Wang, SP 2022

33. Captain Tsubasa &
billion-dollar dōjin industry
“[A]t some point girls in their late teens began
writing and self-publishing dōjinshi that used
the main character from Captain Tsubasa,
and this phenomenon expanded across the
country in the blink of an eye.”
- Otsuka’s Narrative Consumption

34. The relations between worldviews and narratives,
according to Otsuka Eiji, Narrative Consumption

35. Social Media Collectivism
Social-psychological:
➔ Conformity ⇄ identification ⇄ compliance ⇄
internationalization
➔ Anchoring:
◆ Framing (e.g., “Chinese spy balloon” dramaturgy)
◆ Moral licencing & reactive devaluation
◆ Weber–Fechner law
➔ Apophenia:
◆ anecdotal illusion: clickbaiting, consumption of
rage
◆ group attribution error (assign characteristics of
an individual as reflective of the entire group)
➔ Confirmation bias: filter bubble
➔ Dissonance: irrational escalation
➔ Social contagion: memes, viralness
➔ Misinformation effect & misattribution
Keren Wang, SP 2023
Wu wei 無爲- inexertion, hiding behind veil of the mystery
➔ Anonymity and opaqueness of online discourse
➔ Ruo shui 若水- “like water,” adaptability to changing
situations
➔ Zi ran 自然: spontaneity of user generated content
“Ritualological” - inculcation of exclusive in-group identity
➔ Fuli 復禮: Ritual repetitions to inculcate group
identity: memes as instrument to maintain in-group
harmony
➔ Appearance and role-performance over substance
➔ Ritualistic narrative consumption (Otsuka)
➔ Mohist doctrine of dying
Legalism and the dilemma of content moderation
➔ Yi yan 壹言 (unification of words): uniform moderation
rules applied to all users?
➔ Rewards & punishments? Incentives & disincentives?
“Canceling?”