Editing Propaganda (section)

===Persuasion in social psychology===

[[File:Bundesarchiv Bild 133-075, Worms, Antisemitische Presse, "Stürmerkasten".jpg|thumb|Public reading of the anti-Semitic newspaper ''[[Der Stürmer]]'', [[Worms, Germany|Worms]], Germany, 1935]]
The field of [[social psychology]] includes the study of [[persuasion]]. Social psychologists can be [[Social psychology (sociology)|sociologists]] or [[Social psychology (psychology)|psychologists]]. The field includes many theories and approaches to understanding persuasion. For example, communication theory points out that people can be persuaded by the communicator's credibility, expertise, trustworthiness, and attractiveness. The elaboration likelihood model, as well as heuristic models of persuasion, suggest that a number of factors (e.g., the degree of interest of the recipient of the communication), influence the degree to which people allow superficial factors to persuade them. Nobel Prize–winning psychologist [[Herbert A. Simon]] won the Nobel prize for his theory that people are [[cognitive miser]]s. That is, in a society of mass information, people are forced to make decisions quickly and often superficially, as opposed to logically.

According to [[William W. Biddle]]'s 1931 article "A psychological definition of propaganda", "[t]he four principles followed in propaganda are: (1) rely on emotions, never argue; (2) cast propaganda into the pattern of "we" versus an "enemy"; (3) reach groups as well as individuals; (4) hide the propagandist as much as possible."<ref>{{Cite journal | doi=10.1037/h0074944 |title = A psychological definition of propaganda|journal = The Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology|volume = 26|issue = 3|pages = 283–295|year = 1931|last1 = Biddle|first1 = W. W.}}</ref>

More recently, studies from [[behavioral science]] have become significant in understanding and planning propaganda campaigns, these include for example [[nudge theory]] which was used by the [[Barack Obama 2008 presidential campaign|Obama Campaign in 2008]] then adopted by the UK Government [[Behavioural Insights Team]].<ref>{{cite news|last=Wright|first=Oliver|date=16 September 2015|title=Barack Obama to bring Whitehall's 'nudge' theory to the White House|newspaper=The Independent|url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/barack-obama-to-bring-whitehalls-nudge-theory-to-the-white-house-10504616.html}}</ref> Behavioural methodologies then became subject to great controversy in 2016 after the company [[Cambridge Analytica]] was revealed to have applied them with millions of people's breached Facebook data to encourage them to vote for [[Donald Trump]].<ref>{{cite news|first1=Carole|last1=Cadwalladr|first2=Emma|last2=Graham-Harrison|date=19 March 2018|title=Facebook and Cambridge Analytica face mounting pressure over data scandal|newspaper=The Guardian|url=https://www.theguardian.com/news/2018/mar/18/cambridge-analytica-and-facebook-accused-of-misleading-mps-over-data-breach}}</ref>

Haifeng Huang argues that propaganda is not always necessarily about convincing a populace of its message (and may actually fail to do this) but instead can also function as a means of intimidating the citizenry and signalling the regime's strength and ability to maintain its control and power over society; by investing significant resources into propaganda, the regime can forewarn its citizens of its strength and deterring them from attempting to challenge it.<ref>Huang, Haifeng. "Propaganda as signaling." Comparative Politics 47, no. 4 (2015): 419–444.</ref>