AGE OF

PROPAGANDA
The Everyday Use and Abuse of Persuasion

Anthony R. Pratkanis and Elliot Aronson

University of California, Santa Cruz

W. H. FREEMAN AMD COMPANY

YORK

CONTENTS

Why We Wrote This Book

1. Our Age of Propaganda

xi
1

THE PSYCHOLOGY OF
EVERYDAY PERSUASION
2. Mysterious Influence
3. Mindless Propaganda, Thoughtful Persuasion
4. The Rationalizing Animal

17
25
32

PRE-PERSUASION: SETTING THE STAGE

FOR EFFECTIVE INFLUENCE
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.

Words of Influence
Pictures in Our Heads
Saddam Hussein: The Hitler We "Know"
Asking the Right Questions
The Power of "Decoys"
The Psychology of Factoids

43
50
56
61
67
70

COMMUNICATOR CREDIBILITY:
REAL AND MANUFACTURED
11. The Credible Communicator
12. Breakfast of Champions, Junk Food for the Self
13. How Do You Persuade If Everyone Knows You Are
Untrustworthy, Unbelievable, and Disliked?
14. The Manufacture of Credibility
15. Prizefighter Slays 11 with One Look:
The Influence of Mass Media Models

85
90
94
100
105

THE MESSAGE AMD HOW

IT IS DELIVERED
16. Packages
17. Self-Sell
18. Naked Attics and Neighborhood War Heroes:
On Vividness in Communication
19. Why Do They Keep Repeating the Same Ads?
20. If You Have Nothing to SayDistract Them
21. If You Want to Gain an Inch,
Ask for a MileSometimes!
22. Protagoras' Ideal: One-Sided Puffery versus
Two-Sided Debate

115
123
127
134
139
143
149

EMOTIONAL APPEALS: TOUCH

THE HEART, PERSUADE THE MIND
23.
24.
25.
26.
27.
28.

The Fear Appeal

The Granfalloon Technique
Guilt Sells
What Is the Influence of One Flower Given?
The Committed Heart
The Psychology of Scarcity and the Mystique
of Phantoms

161
167
174
178
183
188

COUNTERACTING THE TACTICS OF

PERSUASION
29. Subliminal Sorcery: Who Is Seducing Whom?
30. Is Forewarned Forearmed?
Or How to Really Resist Propaganda
31. Education or Propaganda?

32.
33.
34.
35.
36.
37.

WHEN INFORMATION FAILS*

THE CHALLENGE OF PROPAGANDA
TO SOCIETY
On the Ineffectiveness of Information Campaigns
What Is News?
Persuasion Direct
How To Become a Cult Leader
Propaganda in the Third Reich: A Case for Uncertainty
Peitho's Children
References
Index

199
206
215

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240
249
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267
291