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The Relationship between Propaganda and Information Cascades

In this blog post, the way propaganda ties with information cascades will be explored.

So first, what exactly is propaganda? A rather complete definition states that propaganda is “the deliberate, systematic attempt to shape perceptions, manipulate cognitions, and direct behavior to achieve a response that furthered the desired intent of the propagandist.” Throughout history, propaganda has been used to rally supporters for a cause, be it good or bad. Propaganda is most effective when the recipients of the message do not realize that it is indeed propaganda. So, what are the principles of propaganda? Apparently, propaganda always has a large element of the fake in it, varying from false date on despatch, unverified rumors expressed as truths, and insinuations that often have little basis. Moreover, propaganda tends to avoid abstract ideas and appeal to the emotions, repeat just a few ideas, give only one side of the argument, criticize opponents continuously, and create an “enemy”. Looking at these principles from a critical view, it is a wonder that propaganda is ever effective. Logical and rational individuals would surely never fall for such obvious tricks! Unfortunately things are not always simple.

Information cascade is a phenomenon in which an individual ignores his/her own signal in the face of signals from other individuals. Studies have shown that this effect can be quite powerful; researches conducted show that people sometimes follow the crowd on a decision, such as which object is larger, even if the crowd’s answer is obviously wrong. Moreover, human behavior is quite obviously influenced by other behavior and such cascades are self-feeding. As the group grows, so do the number of people who conform to the actions of the group; in one study, researchers found that if one person stared at the sky, very few others did. If there was a group of 5, some people began to stare at the sky as well. Once the group contained 15 people, approximately 45% of people also looked up into the sky.

So how does this actually tie into the strength of propaganda? First, realize, that there are many types of propaganda; they can be white (clearly propaganda), grey (apparent propaganda but sources are hidden), or black (material is not easily recognizable as propaganda). Black propaganda, is perhaps the most insidious because the recipient of the knowledge cannot discern if the message is skewed or not. So what about propaganda makes it so effective? Recall that propaganda is made to be simple, appeal to the emotion, and create an “opposing” group. The simplicity of the message allows propaganda to be accessible by all types of people, setting the grounds for an information cascade. The appeal to emotion is an attempt to override a person’s logical self, appealing to perhaps the most irrational part of a person. Finally, by creating an “opposing” group, propaganda plants seeds of doubt in the hearts of the people, making them more easy to manipulate. An additional element of propaganda also serves to increase the chances for a cascade that accepts the message to happen; the message is largely binary, that is, one either agrees with the propaganda, or one disagrees. It is easy to see how propaganda relies on the beginning of an information cascade to be effective. It directly targets a group that is less likely to reject it and thus provide positive signals. However, how does the cascade grow?

Recall that propaganda tries to convey an “us-vs-them” mentality and that analyzing propaganda is largely binary. Thus, it is difficult for rational people to actually fight against the crowd. They would simply fall in the “them” category, be perceived as the enemy, demonized, and ignored. Thus as more people buy into a propaganda, it becomes increasingly difficult to fight against it; there is simply no real way to win. Thus, propaganda works when a vocal minority becomes large enough to affect the non-caring majority. Once this majority accepts, it the propaganda has used the elements of information cascade to become a “truth.” If everyone is able to think for themselves, and not follow the crowd, a propaganda would almost never be successful; after all, they are built on half-truths and thus the cascades are incorrect ones.

Propaganda is not necessarily bad; it can be used to increase morale, for example, in a time of war, but it is inherently made to appeal to the basest of human action. In class we also learned that more information can often reverse the tides of the cascade. For propaganda too, this is true; opposing view points will inevitable pop up, especially in the internet in the modern age. Thus, I believe propaganda is far harder to utilize to control the masses. At the same time, this large amount of information is also full of propaganda. Not all messages are as they seem, and the careful reader must take care to not buy an argument just as it is, for it might be a cleverly veiled piece of propaganda.

Source:

http://www.physics.smu.edu/pseudo/Propaganda/

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