Chapter 4 - The Psychology of Public Relations

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• The systematic study of mass psychology revealed to students the potentialities of invisible government of society by manipulation of the motives which actuate man in the group.

• Trotter and Le Bon, who approached the subject in a scientific manner, and Graham Wallas, Walter Lippmann and others who continued with searching studies of the group mind, established that the group has mental characteristics distinct from those of the individual, and is motivated by impulses and emotions which cannot be explained on the basis of what we know of individual psychology.

• So the question naturally arose: If we understand the mechanism and motives of the group mind, is it not possible to control and regiment the masses according to our will without their knowing it?

• The recent practice of propaganda has proved that it is possible at least up to a certain point and within certain limits.

• Mass psychology is as yet far from being an exact science and the mysteries of human motivation are by no means all revealed. But at least theory and practice have combined with sufficient success to permit us to know that in certain cases we can effect some change in public opinion with a fair degree of accuracy by operating a certain mechanism, just as the motorist can regulate the speed of his car by manipulating the flow of gasoline.

• Imagine how much more refined the techniques have become after 100 years of honing.

• He doesn’t say it directly, but he is alluding to cybernetics (See: Norbert Weiner) and the modeling of man as a machine. In this case a gasoline engine.

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• Propaganda is not a science in the laboratory sense, but it is no longer entirely the empirical affair that it was before the advent of the study of mass psychology. It is now scientific in the sense that it seeks to base its operations upon definite knowledge drawn from direct observation of the group mind, and upon the application of principles which have been demonstrated to be consistent and relatively constant.

• The modern propagandist studies systematically and objectively the material with which he is working in the spirit of the laboratory. If the matter in hand is a nation-wide sales campaign, he studies the field by means of a clipping service, or of a corps of scouts, or by personal study at a crucial spot He determines, for example, which features of a product are losing their public appeal, and in what new direction the public taste is veering. He will not fail to investigate to what extent it is the wife who has the final word in the choice of her husband’s car, or of his suits and shirts.

• Here he is again acting like the public can have a taste not put in their mouth by the propagandists.

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• Propaganda, like economics and sociology, can never be an exact science for the reason that its subject-matter, like theirs, deals with human beings.

• Comparing propaganda to economics and sociology. Talk about three stooges.

• If you can influence the leaders, either with or without their conscious cooperation you automatically influence the group which they sway. But men do not need to be actually gathered together in a public meeting or in a street riot, to be subject to the influences of mass psychology. Because man is by nature gregarious he feels himself to be member of a herd, even when he is alone in his room with the curtains drawn. His mind retains the patterns which have been stamped on it by the group influences.

• A man sits in his office deciding what stocks to buy. He imagines, no doubt, that he is planning his purchases according to his own judgment. In actual fact his judgment is a melange of impressions stamped on his mind by outside influences which unconsciously control his thought. He buys a certain railroad stock because it was in the headlines yesterday and hence is the one which comes most prominently to his mind; because he has a pleasant recollection of a good dinner on one of its fast trains; because it has a liberal labor policy, a reputation for honesty; because he has been told that J. P. Morgan owns some of its shares.

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• Trotter and Le Bon concluded that the group mind does not think in the strict sense of the word. In place of thoughts it has impulses, habits and emotions. In making up its mind its first impulse is usually to follow the example of a trusted leader. This is one of the most firmly established principles of mass psychology. It operates in establishing the rising or diminishing prestige of a summer resort, in causing a run on a bank, or a panic on the stock exchange, in creating a best seller, or a box-office success.

• Bank runs and stock exchange panics are not the same as manipulating someone to buy this shirt or that. We are in nation destabilizing territory here.

• But when the example of the leader is not at hand and the herd must think for itself, it does so by means of cliches, pat words or images which stand for a whole group of ideas or experiences. Not many years ago, it was only necessary to tag a political candidate with the word “interests” to stampede millions of people into voting against him, because anything associated with “the interests” seemed necessarily corrupt. Recently the word Bolshevik has performed a similar service for persons who wished to frighten the public away from a line of action.

• Here we again see overt political manipulation. The whole “truth” thing goes right out the window when power is involved. Today people use the same tactics but with different phrases. Fascist, communist, (neo-)Nazi, boomer, snowflake, libtard, conservitard, democrap, republicrap, republican’t, demonrat, MAGA. If you hear or read anything that uses these words try a simple experiment. Replace the offending term with “poopy head”. Does this change the meaning of the sentence? I argue that nine times out of ten (and I think I’m being generous) that is does NOT change the message. This is at least some evidence that the world is sliding away from actually conversing with “the other side” to simply calling each other names. If we can’t even talk to one another, this will not end well.

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• By playing upon an old cliche, or manipulating a new one, the propagandist can sometimes swing a whole mass of group emotions.

• In Great Britain, during the war, the evacuation hospitals came in for a considerable amount of criticism because of the summary way in which they handled their wounded. It was assumed by the public that a hospital gives prolonged and conscientious attention to its patients. When the name was changed to evacuation posts the critical reaction vanished. No one expected more than an adequate emergency treatment from an institution so named. The cliche hospital was indelibly associated in the public mind with a certain picture.

• To persuade the public to discriminate between one type of hospital and another, to dissociate the cliche from the picture it evoked, would have been an impossible task. Instead, a new cliche automatically conditioned the public emotion toward these hospitals.

• Men are rarely aware of the real reasons which motivate their actions. A man may believe that he buys a motor car because, after careful study of the technical features of all makes on the market, he has concluded that this is the best. He is almost certainly fooling himself. He bought it, perhaps, because a friend whose financial acumen he respects bought one last week; or because his neighbors believed he was not able to afford a car of that class; or because its colors are those of his college fraternity.

• Again with the disdain. Men do things for no reason at all. Like Saddam ruling with an iron fist. Assad gassed his own people. Putin’s “war of aggression”. On the other hand we are to believe Bernays and our “leaders” (also men I think, but maybe lizardmen…) somehow do act with pure reason? It is always “the other” that acts irrationally while “the in” acts rationally. How many wars has the USA been involved in since WW2? And “we” are the “good guys” in every single one?

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• It is chiefly the psychologists of the school of Freud who have pointed out that many of man’s thoughts and actions are compensatory substitutes for desires which he has been obliged to suppress. A thing may be desired not for its intrinsic worth or usefulness, but because he has unconsciously come to see in it a symbol of something else, the desire for which he is ashamed to admit to himself. A man buying a car may think he wants it for purposes of locomotion, whereas the fact may be that he would really prefer not to be burdened with it, and would rather walk for the sake of his health. He may really want it because it is a symbol of social position, an evidence of his success in business, or a means of pleasing his wife.

• Freud is a joke by modern standards.

• This is a little off topic, but I thought 100 years ago men would beat their wives into submission. I thought women were completely oppressed. Why would a man buy a car to please his wife if this were the case? Or maybe men and women actually got along 100 years ago and the modern feminists have been propagandizing us all for the last several decades. Interesting to note, and we will see more in a later chapter, but Bernays actually promoted early feminist ideology.

• It is evident that the successful propagandist must understand the true motives and not be content to accept the reasons which men give for what they do.

• Literally don’t listen to what someone says. The propagandist clearly knows me better than I know my self.

• It is not sufficient to understand only the mechanical structure of society, the groupings and cleavages and loyalties. An engineer may know all about the cylinders and pistons of a locomotive, but unless he knows how steam behaves under pressure he cannot make his engine run. Human desires are the steam which makes the social machine work.

• More mechanical analogies. Man is nothing but a clockwork automaton to Bernays and his ilk.

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• Only by understanding them can the propagandist control that vast, loose-jointed mechanism which is modern society.

• The old propagandist based his work on the mechanistic reaction psychology then in vogue in our colleges. This assumed that the human mind was merely an individual machine, a system of nerves and nerve centers, reacting with mechanical regularity to stimuli, like a helpless, will-less automaton. It was the special pleader’s function to provide the stimulus which would cause the desired reaction in the individual purchaser.

• It was one of the doctrines of the reaction psychology that a certain stimulus often repeated would create a habit, or that the mere reiteration of an idea would create a conviction. Suppose the old type of salesmanship, acting for a meat packer, was seeking to increase the sale of bacon. It would reiterate innumerable times in full-page advertisements: “Eat more bacon. Eat bacon because it is cheap, because it is good, because it gives you reserve energy.”

• This is somewhat interesting because Bernays campaigned to promote bacon. It was seen as a “dirty” meat and not widely consumed at the time.

• The newer salesmanship, understanding the group structure of society and the principles of mass psychology, would first ask: Who is it that influences the eating habits of the public?" The answer, obviously, is: “The physicians." The new salesman will then suggest to physicians to say publicly that it is wholesome to eat bacon. He knows as a mathematical certainty, that large numbers of persons will follow the advice of their doctors, because he understands the psychological relation of dependence of men upon their physicians.

• As mentioned in a previous chapter, the same tactic was used - promotion by doctors - in cigarette sales. At least in the case of bacon it probably is relatively healthy to eat depending on your overall diet. The cigarettes, and likely many other doctor promoted products, have been decidedly not healthy.

• I actually read that some “dietitians” (some sponsored by General Mills) are now promoting anti-dieting and decrying fat shaming. What is anti-dieting anyway? Obviously they mean to not restrict your food intake, but the definition of diet would be whatever selection of food you are eating. Another word lost to manipulation. In the future this will be seem exactly the way we see the historical cigarette advertisements.

• Doctors are for some reason seen as great authorities on health. This isn’t a ridiculous position to take at face value, but consider that the doctor spends most of his time treating patients. Most patients have common ailments. Even a specialist doctor’s patients will all have the same ailment. Does the doctor spend time keeping up with the latest advancements in his field? In general they do not. This isn’t to say that all new developments are improvements nor that mistakes can be made in any development. But the doctors are not the ones even looking at the new data. They are practicing what they learned in school and will likely practice that until they retire. I won’t say don’t trust your doctor, but you should certainly be doing your own research into you ailments. Trust, but verify.

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• The new salesmanship has found it possible, by dealing with men in the mass through their group formations, to set up psychological and emotional currents which will work for him. Instead of assaulting sales resistance by direct attack, he is interested in removing sales resistance. He creates circumstances which will swing emotional currents so as to make for purchaser demand.

• If, for instance, I want to sell pianos, it is not sufficient to blanket the country with a direct appeal, such as:

• “YOU buy a Mozart piano now. It is cheap. The best artists use it. It will last for years.”

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• What are the true reasons why the purchaser is planning to spend his money on a new car instead of on a new piano? Because he has decided that he wants the commodity called locomotion more than he wants the commodity called music? Not altogether. He buys a car, because it is at the moment the group custom to buy cars.

• The modern propagandist therefore sets to work to create circumstances which will modify that custom. He appeals perhaps to the home instinct which is fundamental. He will endeavor to develop public acceptance of the idea of a music room in the home. This he may do, for example, by organizing an exhibition of period music rooms designed by well known decorators who themselves exert an influence on the buying groups. He enhances the effectiveness and prestige of these rooms by putting in them rare and valuable tapestries. Then, in order to create dramatic interest in the exhibit, he stages an event or ceremony. To this ceremony key people, persons known to influence the buying habits of the public, such as a famous violinist, a popular artist, and a society leader, are invited. These key persons affect other groups, lifting the idea of the music room to a place in the public consciousness which it did not have before. The juxtaposition of these leaders, and the idea which they are dramatizing are then projected to the wider public through various publicity channels. Meanwhile, influential architects have been persuaded to make the music room an integral architectural part of their plans with perhaps a specially charming niche in one corner for the piano. Less influential architects will as a matter of course imitate what is done by the men whom they consider masters of their profession. They in turn will implant the idea of the music room in the mind of the general public.

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• The music room will be accepted because it has been made the thing. And the man or woman who has a music room, or has arranged a corner of the parlor as a musical corner, will naturally think of buying a piano. It will come to him as his own idea.

• The selling of this or that is now done by pulling all manner of strings to create a particular circumstance, or illusion, of fashion. Each cog in this propaganda machine likely has no idea they are part of some larger machination. They are all flattered to be invited to the event or ceremony. They are glad to be “on the inside” of setting a trend because it enhances their public position. Then the idea or product filters down to the less influential, the followers, the purchasers, the voters.

• In this particular music room/piano example we see how circuitous a path the propagandist takes to get us to buy pianos. A whole host of influencers are employed to create the circumstance - a music room - all to sell you a piano.

• Under the old salesmanship the manufacturer said to the prospective purchaser, “Please buy a piano.” The new salesmanship has reversed the process and caused the prospective purchaser to say to the manufacturer, “Please sell me a piano.”

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• When an attempt was made to show the public the beauty of the apartments, a competition was held among interior decorators for the best furnished apartment in Jackson Heights. An important committee of judges decided. This competition drew the approval of well known authorities, as well as the interest of millions, who were made cognizant of it through newspaper and magazine and other publicity, with the effect of building up definitely the prestige of the development.

• One of the most effective methods is the utilization of the group formation of modern society in order to spread ideas. An example of this is the nationwide competitions for sculpture in Ivory soap, open to school children in certain age groups as well as professional sculptors. A sculptor of national reputation found Ivory soap an excellent medium for sculpture.

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• The Procter and Gamble Company offered a series of prizes for the best sculpture in white soap. The contest was held under the auspices of the Art Center in New York City, an organization of high standing in the art world.

• School superintendents and teachers throughout the country were glad to encourage the movement as an educational aid for schools. Practice among school children as part of their art courses was stimulated. Contests were held between schools, between school districts and between cities.

• Ivory soap was adaptable for sculpturing in the homes because mothers saved the shavings and the imperfect efforts for laundry purposes. The work itself was clean.

• In the first of these national competitions about 500 pieces of sculpture were entered. In the third, 2,500. And in the fourth, more than 4,000. If the carefully selected pieces were so numerous, it is evident that a vast number were sculptured during the year, and that a much greater number must have been made for practice purposes. The good will was greatly enhanced by the fact that this soap had become not merely the concern of the housewife but also a matter of personal and intimate interest to her children.

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• A number of familiar psychological motives were set in motion in the carrying out of this campaign. The esthetic, the competitive, the gregarious (much of the sculpturing was done in school groups), the snobbish (the impulse to follow the example of a recognized leader), the exhibitionist, and—last but by no means least—the maternal.

• All these motives and group habits were put in concerted motion by the simple machinery of group leadership and authority. As if actuated by the pressure of a button, people began working for the client for the sake of the gratification obtained in the sculpture work itself.

• This point is most important in successful propaganda work. The leaders who lend their authority to any propaganda campaign will do so only if it can be made to touch their own interests. There must be a disinterested aspect of the propagandist’s activities. In other words, it is one of the functions of the public relations counsel to discover at what points his client’s interests coincide with those of other individuals or groups.

• In the case of the soap sculpture competition, the distinguished artists and educators who sponsored the idea were glad to lend their services and their names because the competitions really promoted an interest which they had at heart—the cultivation of the esthetic impulse among the younger generation.

• The propagandist is actually manipulating multiple parties at the same time. The manipulate the group leaders and authority to carry water for the cause while ultimately manipulating the final target. In this case the consumer of Ivory soap. While someone promoting this art competition might truly believe it is a good thing (and it might be), the real reason for concocting the entire charade is to improve the profitability of the soap manufacture. Where is the “truth” in this ruse? This is one of the reason propaganda has gotten its well deserved bad name.

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• Such coincidence and overlapping of interests is as infinite as the interlacing of group formations themselves. For example, a railway wishes to develop its business. The counsel on public relations makes a survey to discover at what points its interests coincide with those of its prospective customers. The company then establishes relations with chambers of commerce along its right of way and assists them in developing their communities. It helps them to secure new plants and industries for the town. It facilitates business through the dissemination of technical information. It is not merely a case of bestowing favors in the hope of receiving favors; these activities of the railroad, besides creating good will, actually promote growth on its right of way. The interests of the railroad and the communities through which it passes mutually interact and feed one another.

• In the same way, a bank institutes an investment service for the benefit of its customers in order that the latter may have more money to deposit with the bank. Or a jewelry concern develops an insurance department to insure the jewels it sells, in order to make the purchaser feel greater security in buying jewels. Or a baking company establishes an information service suggesting recipes for bread to encourage new uses for bread in the home.

• I note these passages simply to belabor the point that the propagandist can use his tactics on anything. Soap, railroads, banks, and literally any other good, service, or idea.

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• I have tried, in these chapters, to explain the place of propaganda in modern American life and something of the methods by which it operates—to tell the why, the what, the who and the how of the invisible government which dictates our thoughts, directs our feelings and controls our actions. In the following chapters I shall try to show how propaganda functions in specific departments of group activity, to suggest some of the further ways in which it may operate.

• Hopefully you are starting to see how insidious propaganda is. Imagine how 100+ years of these tactics, that are undoubtedly much improved and more subtle, our society has been molded by the so called “invisible government.” I’ve mentioned labels like “deep state” and “illuminati”, the likes of which are linked to conspiracy theories. I certainly can’t vouch for all the conspiracy theories, but it seems more than reasonable to conclude that there are certain interested groups that are trying to manipulate the world. To what extent are they trying to manipulate us? How successful are they? How much control and influence do they exert? These, I hope, are now questions of degree and not of truth.

• As I said in the introduction, I believe the following:

• There exists a class of people (the so-called elite) that have wealth, power, and influence. They work together with other wealthy, powerful, and influential people to both maintain and advance their wealth, power, and influence.

• I hope you to can see how this is not only not far-fetched but more so an accurate lens to view the modern world.