TOP 10 psychological ways to manipulate the media

2024 Author: Seth Attwood | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 15:55

Sometimes, watching TV, we are surprised: will anyone really believe this nonsense? Alas, they do. Almost any invention finds some part of the audience who uncritically perceives everything that is suggested to it.

But it turns out that the situation is even worse: it turns out that human memory is arranged in such a way that distorted information can be introduced into it even about what a person knows himself, personally, and he will be unable to distinguish between fictional and real events.

The first experiments on false memory implantation were carried out in the 90s of the last century by Elizabeth Loftus. She handed out to 24 participants in the experiment short (one paragraph) descriptions of four stories that happened to them between the ages of 4 and 6 - three stories were true (they were told by the participants' relatives), and the fourth was about how the participant got lost in a supermarket as a child. was completely fictional. Participants were told that they were participating in an experiment to study the possibility of detailed recall of childhood memories, and were asked to first write, and then a week later tell in an interview the details of the four stories given to them, as they remember them.

Of the 24 participants, six not only "remembered" how they got lost in the supermarket, but also recounted the episode in vivid detail, although they noted that their memories were slightly more vague than the other three episodes. However, an outside observer could not determine from their speech which of the four events was false. Subsequent experiments showed that, depending on the initial conditions, some form of false memory implantation in a similar experiment conducted by Loftus is achieved in 20-40% of participants.

The greatest success was achieved by Kimberly Wade in 2002. In the experiment, she used not a description of the story, but a fabricated photo of a hot air balloon flight, which was allegedly previously performed by a participant in the experiment. As a result, about 50% of the participants formed full or partial memories of this flight - which never happened.

Another interesting experiment, already on the accuracy of memories of real events, was staged by Ulrich Neisser. In 1986, the day after the Challenger disaster, he interviewed a number of people where they were and what they were doing when they heard about the disaster - it is believed that the memory is clearly imprinted on the circumstances in which a person experiences a strong emotional shock. After a while, Neisser repeated the same survey among the same people - and almost none of them had the late version coincided with the earlier one, moreover, when they were shown a recording of the first version of their answers, people simply did not believe in it. It's funny that the same incident happened to Neisser himself: as he says, he absolutely clearly remembers that he learned about the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor during the broadcast of a baseball game - despite the fact that it is absolutely certain that there were no broadcasts of baseball games in that day just wasn't there.

The progress of science does not stand still, and now the "researchers" have achieved even more. According to some reports, brain structures are already known that are responsible for replacing real memory with an invented one, and by monitoring the activity of these structures during the process, one can check whether the brainwashing worked or not, the subject believed in false memories or was only pretending.

Ten Strategies for Psychological Media Manipulation

1. Distraction

The basic element of social control is the distraction strategy. The goal is to divert public attention from important issues solved by political and economic elites using the technology of "flooding" or "flooding" with continuous distraction and insignificant information.

Distraction strategy is important to prevent citizens from gaining important knowledge in science, economics, psychology, neuroscience, and cybernetics.

2. Create a problem - suggest a solution

This method is also called problem-response-solution. A problem is created, a "situation" that causes a certain reaction of the public - so that people themselves begin to desire its solution. For example, letting violence grow in cities or organizing bloody attacks to get citizens to demand stronger security laws and policies that curtail civil liberties.

3. A gradual strategy

To implement unpopular solutions, you just need to apply them gradually, drop by drop, over the years. This is how fundamentally new socio-economic conditions (neoliberalism) were imposed in the 80s and 90s: restriction of the role of the state, privatization, insecurity, flexibility, massive unemployment, wages that no longer provide a decent life. That is, all those changes that, if implemented simultaneously, would cause a revolution.

4. Postponement strategy

Another way to make unpopular decisions is to present them as "painful and necessary" and to get citizens' consent at the moment to implement them in the future.

5. Shushiukanie with the people

Most of the advertisements that target the general public use language, arguments, symbols, and especially intonations that are aimed at children. As if the viewer is a very young child or has a mental deficiency. Why? "If you address the addressee as if he is 12 years old or less, then according to the laws of perception, there is a possibility that he will respond or react uncritically - like a child."

6. More emotion than thought

The use of the emotional aspect is a classic technique for blocking rational analysis and critical perception of individuals. In addition, the use of the emotional factor allows you to open the door to the subconscious in order to deliver there thoughts, desires, fears, fears, coercion or the desired patterns of behavior.

7. Keeping people in ignorance and mediocrity

Creation of a dependent society, incapable of understanding technology and methods of social control and oppression. "The quality of education provided to the lower social classes should be as meager and mediocre as possible so that the gap of ignorance between the lower and higher social classes remains and cannot be bridged."

8. Encourage the masses to indulge in mediocrity

To instill in the masses the idea that it is fashionable to be stupid, vulgar and ill-mannered.

9. Increase feelings of guilt

Make individuals feel that they themselves are to blame for their own troubles and failures due to lack of intelligence, ability, or effort. Thus, instead of rebelling against the existing system, individuals feel helpless and engage in self-criticism. This leads to a depressive state, effectively contributes to restraining a person's actions.

10. Know more about people than they know about themselves

Over the past 50 years, scientific advances have led to a rapid increase in the knowledge gap between the mainstream of society and those who belong to or are used by the ruling elites. Through biology, neurobiology and applied psychology, the "system" takes advantage of advanced knowledge about the human being, either physically or psychologically. This means that in most cases, the "system" has more control and more power over individuals than individuals over themselves.