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Psychological Warfare and the Impact of Propaganda
- 1. Lecture - Chapter 5 Propaganda and Psychological Warfare Michael Ross, LCSW
- 2. Understand the psychological threat of malicious information activities and malign influence campaigns. Leave the lecture understanding the following: 1.) What is Propaganda? 2.) What is Psychological warfare? 3.) Why does propagation, impact, and persistence matter? 4.)What are the psychological ramifications of the World Information war? Businessup Front
- 3. LectureSources Jowett, S. & O’Donnell, V. (2006). Propaganda and Persuasion (Seventh edition). Sage. Note: All quiz material for this lecture comes from, Jowett & O’Donnell (2006) Propaganda and Persuasion: Chapter 5 Propaganda and Psychological Warfare
- 4. Propaganda Propaganda is an essential part of warfare, and it can be traced back to the earliest human civilizations—where warfare was cataloged. However, during World War 1, the concept of propaganda moved from a foundational part of the maintenance of the state to a purely pejorative concept—which led individuals to fear mass media and its ability to influence and alter behavior. Source: Jowett, S. & O’Donnell, V. (2006). Propaganda and Persuasion (Seventh edition). Sage and https://news.artnet.com/art-world/video-game-fan-art-mistaken-for- historic-wwi-propaganda-95821
- 5. Propaganda The intentional dissemination of information to influence public behavior and opinion. Propaganda Edward Bernays Published – 1928 The True Believer: Thoughts on the Nature of Mass Movements Eric Hoffer Published – 1951 The World Information War: Western Resilience, Campaigning, and Cognitive Effects Timothy Clack (Editor), Robert Johnson (Editor) Published – 2021 The Sage Handbook of Propaganda Paul Baines (Editor), Nicholas O'Shaughnessy (Editor) Published – 2019
- 6. Psychologicalwarfare Psychological warfare is the operationalization of propaganda, and techniques based on psychological research, to achieve an established strategic objective in favor of a military agenda. Source: Jowett, S. & O’Donnell, V. (2006). Propaganda and Persuasion (Seventh edition). Sage and https://www.soc.mil/4thPOG/4thPOGhome.html
- 7. Psychologicalwarfare Source: Jowett, S. & O’Donnell, V. (2006). Propaganda and Persuasion (Seventh edition). Sage and https://www.soc.mil/4thPOG/4thPOGhome.html
- 8. Maligninfluence Malign influence campaigns often evoke a strong emotional reaction that leads people to share it without first looking into the facts for themselves, polluting healthy conversations about the issues and increasing societal divisions. Targeting campaigns seek to convert strong emotional reactions into real- world actions. Additionally, they seek to degrade rational thought and can encourage a degradation of good cyber hygiene. This makes strengthening cognitive security a critically important aspect of cyber security. Source: http://www.cisa.gov/mdm-resource-library, https://www.atlanticcouncil.org/issue/disinformation/, https://stratcomcoe.org/publications
- 9. ABC’s of Propaganda Name-Calling #1 • Giving an idea a bad label and therefore rejecting and condemning it without examining the evidence. Glittering Generality #2 • Associating something with a ‘virtue word’ and creating acceptance and approval without examination of the evidence. Transfer #3 • Carries the respect and authority of something respected to something else to make the latter accepted. Also works with something that is disrespected to make the latter rejected. Source: Jowett, S. & O’Donnell, V. (2006). Propaganda and Persuasion (Seventh edition). Sage
- 10. ABC’s of Propaganda Testimonial #4 • Consists in having some respected or hated person say that a given idea or program, product, or person is good or bad. Plain Folks #5 • The method by which a speaker attempts to convince the audience that he or she and his or her ideas are good because they are ‘of the people,’ the ‘plain folk.’ Card Stacking #6 • Involves the selection and use of facts or falsehoods, illustrations or distractions, and logical or illogical statements to give the best or the worst possible case for an idea, program, person, or product. Source: Jowett, S. & O’Donnell, V. (2006). Propaganda and Persuasion (Seventh edition). Sage
- 11. ABC’s of Propaganda Bandwagon #7 • Has as its theme ‘everybody—at least all of us—is doing it!’ and thereby tries to convince the members of a group that their peers are accepting the program and that we should all jump on the bandwagon rather than be left out “Observe that in all of these devices our emotion is the stuff with which propagandists work. Without it they are helpless; with it, harnessing it to their purposes, they can make us glow with pride or burn with hatred, they can make us zealots on behalf of the program they espouse.” Source: Jowett, S. & O’Donnell, V. (2006). Propaganda and Persuasion (Seventh edition). Sage
- 12. PsychologicalReasons Confirmation Bias Search, recall, and interpret information in one’s favor. Polarization Extended distancing between “us” and “them.” Information Cascades We make decisions based on others’ decisions Echo Chambers Like-minded sources we consume. Filter Bubbles Algorithms serve us information that we “like.” Toxic Stress Our executive functioning is impacted by real and perceived stressors. Source: Jowett, S. & O’Donnell, V. (2006). Propaganda and Persuasion (Seventh edition). Sage, https://www.hotjar.com/blog/psychographics-in-marketing/ and https://www.digitalsherlocks.org/360os-digitalsherlocks
- 13. PsychologicalRamifications The long-term negative impacts of the World Information War on the psychological well-being of individuals, communities, and nations needs to be better understood. While a significant body of literature exists that allows the researcher to extrapolate what the consequences are of explicit actions, much is still unknown about how the altering of memes impacts complex social systems and how psychological warfare longitudinally impacts cognitions. Source: Jowett, S. & O’Donnell, V. (2006). Propaganda and Persuasion (Seventh edition). Sage and https://elevationbehavioralhealth.com/anxiety-makes-me-feel-like-i-am- losing-my-mind/
- 14. ActiveLearning(Description) Students will be given three real-world examples of current malign influence campaigns being used. Students will be asked to identify what technique is being used in the identified media. Students will then label the media based on the technique and will briefly discuss with each other why they believe they correctly labeled the specific media and which vulnerability was targeted. Source: Jowett, S. & O’Donnell, V. (2006). Propaganda and Persuasion (Seventh edition). Sage and https://www.hsdl.org/c/concerns-in-u-s-policy-for-addressing- propaganda-and-disinformation/
- 15. You now understand the possible psychological ramifications of the World Information War and how the war is being fought. You can now define the following: 1.) Propaganda 2.) Psychological Warfare 3.) Propagation, Impact, and Persistence (PIP) 4.) Malign Influence Summary
- 16. LectureReferences • 4th POG(A) Home. (2022). Soc.mil. https://www.soc.mil/4thPOG/4thPOGhome.html • CISA. (2022). Cisa.gov. https://www.cisa.gov/mdm-resource-library • Digital Forensic Research Lab. (2015). Dfrlab. https://www.digitalsherlocks.org/ourwork • Disinformation Archives. (2020). Atlantic Council. https://www.atlanticcouncil.org/issue/disinformation/ • Gault, M. (2022) Army’s New “Psyop” Recruitment Ad Looks Like a Terrifying Video Game Cutscene. Vice.com. https://www.vice.com/en/article/93bxwz/armys-new-recruitment-ad-looks-like-a-terrifying-video- game-cutscene • Jowett, S. & O’Donnell, V. (2006). Propaganda and Persuasion (Seventh edition). Sage. • Milano, V. (2020, February 21). Concerns in U.S. Policy for Addressing Propaganda and Disinformation - Homeland Security Digital Library. Homeland Security Digital Library. https://www.hsdl.org/c/concerns-in-u-s- policy-for-addressing-propaganda-and-disinformation/ • StratCom | NATO Strategic Communications Centre of Excellence Riga, Latvia. (2022). Stratcomcoe.org. https://stratcomcoe.org/publications • Sutton, B. (2014, September 8). Video Game Fan Art Mistaken for Historic WWI Propaganda. Artnet News; Artnet News. https://news.artnet.com/art-world/video-game-fan-art-mistaken-for-historic-wwi-propaganda- 95821
- 17. Really…thismatters Source: http://www.cisa.gov/mdm-resource-library, https://www.atlanticcouncil.org/issue/disinformation/, https://stratcomcoe.org/publications “The ‘human factor’ has been recognized as the weakest link in creating safe and secure digital environments – but the human factor may also be the solution to thwarting many cyber threats.” – Security Magazine – April, 2022
- 18. Propagation,Impact, andPersistence A meme is a fragment of a story—the smallest component which is understood without context being provided—that is transmitted from one person to another. Source: Jowett, S. & O’Donnell, V. (2006). Propaganda and Persuasion (Seventh edition). Sage and https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/cultures/memetics
- 19. HumanTendecies(vulnarabilities) Source: Jowett, S. & O’Donnell, V. (2006). Propaganda and Persuasion (Seventh edition). Sage, https://www.hotjar.com/blog/psychographics-in-marketing/ and https://www.digitalsherlocks.org/360os-digitalsherlocks
- 20. Propagation,Impact, andPersistence A meme is a fragment of a story—the smallest component which is understood without context being provided—that is transmitted from one person to another. Source: Jowett, S. & O’Donnell, V. (2006). Propaganda and Persuasion (Seventh edition). Sage and https://www.robotictechnologyinc.com/images/upload/file/Presentation%20Military%20Memetics%20Tutorial%2013%20Dec%2011.pdf
Editor's Notes
- A video game fan’s vintage-style artwork claiming that “Soldiers Eat Babies” was sufficiently convincing to fool the makers of the Russian documentary series “World War I” into including the image in a segment on US propaganda during WWI, the International Business Times reports. “Propaganda is an essential element of warfare, going back to the prebiblical period. During World War I, however, sophisticated techniques of propaganda eventually created negative attitudes in the 20th century toward both propaganda and the potential dangers of mass media influence. In the interwar period, radio broadcasting became important and was increasingly used by European nations in the political conflicts that led up to World War II. Propaganda played a significant role in the rise of both communism and fascism and reached a new level of scientific sophistication during the war. In the period after 1945, propaganda became a major weapon of the ideological struggle between East and West. With the end of the Cold War, propaganda activities on the international scene have continued but are now a much more complex mixture of political, religious, and economic ideologies
- Broadly propaganda can be defined as communication directed systematically toward the acquisition, or modification, of public acceptance of an opinion or a course of action that degrades or enhances a social construct. The Institute for Propaganda Analysis (IPA) was started in October 1937 by Columbia University professor Clyde R. Miller, who became its chief executive. (The best history of the IPA is Sproule, 1997, pp. 129-177.) Miller, who, as a reporter during World War I, was convinced that he had been hoodwinked by propaganda, was one of a group concerned that the renewed interwar propaganda battles would once again draw the United States into a futile European conflict. The opinion leaders and educators who established the institute were concerned not only with war propaganda but also with such domestic propaganda issues as the Ku Klux Klan, communists, domestic fascism, and the role of advertising, all as possible threats to the democratic way of life. The overarching concern was that the increasing volume of propaganda from numerous sources was inhibiting people’s ability to think clearly and straightly. Miller received a $10,000.00 dollar grant from Edward A. Filene, a wealthy Boston merchant and liberal-minded philanthropist, who was ‘afraid that America was becoming the victim of propaganda (the year was 1936), that Americans had lost their capacity to think things through’ (Sproule, 1983, p.488). Miller had no difficulty recruiting a distinguished group of academicians to serve as officers and also on the advisory board of the institute. The institute immediately started a monthly bulletin, Propaganda Analysis. In the second issue, in the article ‘How to Detect Propaganda’ (1937), it published the famous seven common ‘devices’ or ‘ABCs of propaganda analysis’:
- The emergence of new communication technologies has often made it possible for those wishing to propagandize to make direct contact with their target audience, and thus governments have much less control over the flow of information than was possible in the age of print. The consequences of this important historical shift are already noticeable as world public opinion gains influence. (Jowett, S. & O’Donnell, V., 2006, p.195,259-260)
- It is clear however that psychological warfare can (and does) degrade homeostasis, critical thinking, and overall psychological well-being. This is because the operationalized focus of psychological warfare is to mislead, intimidate, demoralize, or otherwise influence a target population’s thinking or conduct.
- This idea was initially popularized by Richard Dawkins but has since gained significant scientific credibility. Despite increased credibility, it remains a fringe area of research in psychology; however, the United States Department of Defense (US DOD) has spent several million dollars determining what causes memes to replicate in complex social systems.
- There are six basic human tendencies that are exploited in social engineering attacks: Authority: An attacker may call you pretending to be with the Help Desk or an executive in order to exploit your tendency to comply with authority figures, Liking: An attacker may try to build rapport with you by finding common interests, and then ask you for a "favor,“ Reciprocation: An attacker may try to do something for you, or convince you that he or she has, before asking you for something in return, Consistency: An attacker might first get your verbal commitment to abide by a fake security policy, knowing that once you agree to do so you will likely follow through with his next request in order to keep your word, Social Validation: An attacker may try to convince you to participate in a fake survey by telling you that others in your department already have. He or she may have even gotten some of their names and use them to gain your trust, and Scarcity: An attacker may tell you that the first 10 people to complete a survey will automatically win a prize and that since some of your co-workers have already taken the survey, you might as well too.
- This idea was initially popularized by Richard Dawkins but has since gained significant scientific credibility. Despite increased credibility, it remains a fringe area of research in psychology; however, the United States Department of Defense (US DOD) has spent several million dollars determining what causes memes to replicate in complex social systems.