Propaganda Techniques

Agenda Setting
Of the News to manipulate your view of the importance of one topic, just by covering this topic more
frequently.

Appeal to Fear
You appeal to the public by making them aware of a fear and then instilling fear and anxiety, by
mentioning said fear.

Appeal to Prejudice
Using prejudices to attach value or moral rightness to something.

Inevitable Victory
Appealing to somebody by guaranteeing that they will win if they join in with them. If you are already
part of it, you will get reassured that this is the best course to actually get that victory.

Join the Crowd

Making it seem as if any decision or opinion is one of a mass and that it is in their best interest to join
the crowd.

Beautiful People
Often used in advertising this technique shows beautiful, famous or happy people to convince the
audience that if they do exactly what has been done in the advertisement they too will become like
the shown person.

Big Lie
Go and lie big instead of small, because people will more easily fall for a big lie, because they don’t
know where to start to refute the lie.

Classical Conditioning
A behavioural procedure. A normal stimulus is used in combination with a neutral stimulus. With
time this creates the same response to the neutral stimulus as the natural one had.

Cognitive Dissonance
From your own desire that you desire something to be consistent, and then exploit that.

E.g. person 1 is disliked by group of people and person two liked, so person two is used to say that
person one is great and the group of people is pushed to like person 1 more.

Plain Folk
Try to convince that the propaganda is what they need/want. Win the confidence of the audience by
conversing in their manner of speech.

Propaganda Techniques
Cult of Personality
One party idealizes something through unquestioning flattery and praise, this idol in turn then
advocates for the values of the party.

Demonizing the Enemy

Making the opposing side appear to be sub-human, immoral, worthless or simply bad.

Demoralization
Using an adversary to erode fighting spirit an encourage surrender or defection.

Dictat
Usage of images and simple words to exactly tell what action to take in the process eliminating all
other choices.

Disinformation
The creation or deletion of information to make a false statement. This includes every type of
medium.

Divide and Rule

Dividing larger power groups to shrink them and gain the advantage over them, so that you stand as
the “winner”.

Euphemism
Using an innocuous word (euphemism) to avoid any negative swinging words. Let’s something sound
more positive or respectful.

Euphoria
Creating a pleasant event that instils happiness or creates a proud/happy mood. Examples are
military parades.

Fear Uncertainty and Doubt (FUD)

Creating negative, dubious or false information about something to undermine other opinions. Can
be considered a manifestation of the appeal to fear technique.

Firehose of Falsehood
A large number of news being posted through various media, without checking if they are consistent
or the truth.

Flag Waving
Justify an action that doing this action will bring a benefit for any country or any group/ or for any
patriotic reason.

Propaganda Techniques
Flak
Efforts to prevail or keep out an opposite assumption/opinion.

Foot in the door

Often used in sales and recruitment. Someone ensures a psychological debt to someone, and then
the victim will want to repay the perpetrator. Then the perpetrator asks for a larger favour.

Framing
Mostly to convince somebody of one side of an a-or-b question. Facts are presented through a
rhetorical frame, thus shifting the individual’s perception and can be distorted.

Gaslighting
Gish Gallop
During a debate: using obnoxious complicated facts at a rapid pace to make the opponent seem
unknowledgeable.

Glittering Generalities
Usage of a positive word, that has no association or tested value with a product, but lets the product
seem to be connected to the word and as such to the already established idea. Ask approval without
examining the reason.

Guilt by Association
Letting it seem like your opinion is disliked within bigger opposing groups.

Half Truth
A deceptive statement.

1. The statement might be partly true. (all bird can fly (penguins))
2. The statement might only show parts of the whole truth
3. The statement might contain tricky/deceptive elements (British-history teacher or British
history-teacher)

Information Overload
Adding unnecessary facts/numbers to a statement to make it harder to understand and/or conceal
the important point.

Intentional Vagueness
Saying something so vague that it can be interpreted differently or meaningless.

Labelling
Describing someone, a group or something with a derogatory phrase.

Propaganda Techniques
Latitudes of Acceptance
1. Start with an extreme argument, if you know the others will oppose. Then use a milder/your
original argument, to which they might agree.
2. Or you agree with the opposing opinion and during the talk you slowly move back to your
original opinion, then the opponent is more likely to agree.

Limited Hangout
Once someone had been “cornered”, he has to expose the fact that the public wants to know.
Instead of saying everything, and spilling the key details, one says an uncertain/non-concrete fact,
the public will focus on the unimportant7vague fact and most of the time not even care for the key
detail.

Loaded Language
Usage of words with strong emotional implications to influence the audience are used.

Love Bombing
You bombard someone with affection and/or praise so that one will let go of their original values and
focus more on your idea. And you isolate him. (come to the dark side, I love you!)

Milieu Control
Influencing someone’s social background or language style through social pressure and group
language. (e.g. slang to identify your group members)

Obfuscation
Making a message intentionally difficult. (e.g. I cannot say I do not disagree with you)

Operant Conditioning
The behaviours or opinions are modified and reinforced with the help of outside stimuli, leading you
to manifesting the wanted answer.

Oversimplification
Usage of favourable generalities to provide simple answers to complex questions.

Paltering
Usage of selected true statements to mislead.

Pensèe Unique
Enforced reduction of discussion through the usage of oversimplified phrases/arguments.

Quotes out of Context

Selective usage and editing of quotes that can change meaning depending on the context.

Propaganda Techniques
Rationalization
A defence mechanism to justify behaviour of oneself or others through seemingly logical statements.

Repetition
Repeating something more often so that the audience remembers it.

Scapegoating
Using someone or something to alleviate your own feelings, distract from something or blame
someone, simply by saying they are somehow the cause.

Semantic Satiation
Repeating a word with a negative meaning in trivial context to lessen its meaning.

Smear Campaign
A predetermined method to undermine the reputation of someone or something.

Testimonials
Quotations in or out of context to aside that they support something.

Third-party Technique
Using an independent informant to make the public be more trustful towards the news.

Transfer
Transferring good or negative qualities of one person to a selected second other person to make
them seem more good or less good.

Unsated Assumption
Used if a propaganda concept could seem less trustable when stated alone, so you use a stated
reason and an unstated assumption, meaning you repeatedly assume or imply your claim but do not
state it directly. (e.g. Vegetarianism is bad. Because that saves the environment. Our environment is
important.)

Whataboutism
Accusing an opponent with hypocrisy without directly refuting their claim, to make them seem less
creditable.

Misuse of statistics
Using statistics in such a way to inappropriately alter their perception of related topics.