Politicians can use fear to manipulate the public
March 4, 2009A new study in the American Journal of Political Science explores how and when politicians can use fear to manipulate the public into supporting policies they might otherwise oppose. Politicians' use of fear is more likely with regard to topics that are abstract and difficult for citizens (and/or the media) to observe.
Arthur Lupia and Jesse O. Menning examined how select attributes of fear affect a politician's ability to scare citizens into supporting policies that they would otherwise reject. They argue that politicians' use of fear will depend on critical aspects of mass psychology.
For example, manipulation is more likely when the public doesn't understand an issue or is unlikely to be able to overcome the fear created by politicians. By contrast, the easier it is for citizens to observe that the politician has made false statements, the less likely it is that politicians will attempt to use fear at all.
"A greater understanding of when fear can and cannot be used to scare citizens into supporting bad policies can help journalists and scholars more effectively interpret important historical events," the authors note. "It can help them think about whether, and to what extent, elite manipulation of citizen emotions contributed to initial public support for these kinds of government actions."
More information: This study is published in the American Journal of Political Science.
Source: Wiley
Jul 16, 2009 |
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The left has nothing but fear....
as in "Bears CAN shit in the woods?"
Ahhhh, Rupert Murdoch owns 75% of media.
I'm not left or right(stupid label) but I just want you to know the truth....
Although lately, I think we have nothing to fear but our own government(s)...
Read much Machiavelli lately? All of this is old hat.
And yeah... It works. On both sides of the political Left-Right spectrum.
A pox on both their houses.
Yes.
Actually..the fear manipulation tactic is as old as the first arguement by two males over the first female. It's damn old.
With regards to 'societal mass' manipulation, it was done by the money changers and the 'leaders' way back in Sumerian times, when they invented FIAT currencies...over 6,000 years ago.
The deal is that the manipulation is SOoo.. good in the USA..that people falsely believe that their government is not fascist. It is so manipulative and 'in control' for so long that we get such dumkopft statements like that I have quoted.
One tiny piece of evidence?
Canada: 1 out of every 912 people are in the criminal system. (we COUNT our minors as well in that stat)
USA: one out of every 31 people ins in the criminal justice system.
In the USA... they DON'T count their minors..otherwise the number would be FAR worse. As in about one out of every 25 people would be in the criminal system. Canada would be at near one out of every 1000 people.
In the criminal system meaning: either in Jail, on parole, or on probation.
Now look at that statistic again. Even if it bothers you. It's frightening, isn't it? That is the LACK OF A SOCIAL NET--you Americans have been FOOLED INTO BELIEVING that a social net is 'commie' or something, by the moneychangers and scum who have controlled your system for so long. It has infected your lives from cradle to grave-so you can't see it for what it is. This is part of the mechanism of using fear-fear of commies, etc. 'Evil socialism'- so they manipulated the system to rape your lives and make your believe that taking care of one another is EVIL. Such utter bullshit.
The evil parts of the US government (it's individual PERSONS that are responsible, not a 'party' that is responsible-get it straight; The whole 'team' thing is a 'red herring', it's there to distract your sorry ass.) are the problem of course. Which at this advanced state of sorry affairs - means just about all of it.
Very nice doc to watch, the full title is "The Power of Nightmares: The Rise of the Politics of Fear", 4 parts, but well worth the time.
I find it strange that I as an Eastern-European from the ex-soviet block know more and have been inquisitive enough to find out more about this stuff than the average American.
Oh and GG for the study. More pointless reasearchism.
Water CAN be wet
The sky CAN be blue
Gravity CAN make apples fall off of tree
Tag this research in the "No sh!t, Sherlock" file.
So are we to believe that the most powerful nation the world has ever known %u2013 a country with more destructive weapons than the rest of the planet put together, and with a history of using that power to devastating effect - is in extreme danger by some radicalized, disenfranchised peasants from Asia and Africa %u2013 more dangerous than the Soviet Union during the Cold War, a country with weapons to match America%u2019s? These people are so dangerous that this country has to sacrifice the very values that it used against the British to gain independence?
Cheney%u2019s clever advantage is that the %u2018enemy%u2019 is unseen. If the public could actually see who these %u2018terrifying human beings%u2019 actually are, understand their stories, their backgrounds, who they are, what they are called, what they believe in and above all, why they hate America, then the public would see human beings with concepts and emotions like the rest of us, not some enduring monsters without faces.
But what does Cheney care? As long as he gets heard, and as long as the influence of fear works, then he has power.