Skip to main content

ETHNOS_APP

Home • Search • Journals • List 0

Propaganda

Morally Questionable and Morally Unquestionable Techniques

Bibliographic Data

ID9760653
AuthorsRalph K White (Institute for Sino-Soviet Studies at George Washington University, corresponding author)
Year1971
Volume398
Issue1
Pages26-35
Publication date1971-11-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueThe Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0002-7162 • E-ISSN: 1552-3349
PublisherSAGE Publications (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1177/000271627139800104
OpenAlexW2096430938
LanguageEN
Citations received1
References cited1

The prevailing confusion as to what kinds of persuasion are morally legitimate has two unfortunate conse quences: persuaders can be subtly deceptive without realizing it, and they can lean over backward to avoid the stigma of "propaganda." It is useful to compare the words persuasion and propaganda and to recognize that they differ only in the evil overtones of the latter. Five forms of persuasion, or elements in it, seem inherently legitimate: (1) getting and keeping attention; (2) getting and keeping rapport; (3) building credibility, as in Hovland's two- sided approach; (4) appealing to strong motives, including "emotions"; (5) action involvement. Five forms seem morally questionable, if not wrong: (1) lying; (2) innuendo; (3) pre senting opinion as fact; (4) deliberate omission; (5) implied obviousness. Most of the questionable methods can be used "innocently" in the sense that those who use them are deceiving themselves as well as others. But self-deception itself is a sign of weak ness, or worse, if no real effort is made to counteract it

Action (physics · Confusion · Credibility · Deception · Epistemology · Lying · Persuasion · Psychoanalysis · Rhetoric · Sign (mathematics · Stigma (botany · Epistemology, Ethics, and Metaphysics · Philosophy · Psychology · Social Psychology · War, Ethics, and Justification

  • Gerrymandering the National Security Narrative

    Open Access•Patrick Laurin•Surveillance & Society•2020

  • Attitude Change as a Function of Response Restriction

    Open Access•Herbert C Kelman•Human Relations•1953

Unique citing works1
Citations per year0,17
Citation span2020 - 2020 (1)
Citation velocityhistorical
Highly citedNo
Citation typesNeutral: 1

Tools

Open DOISci-Hub
Ethnos_APP • Open Source Project • MIT License • Frontend v2.0.0 • Privacy and Cookies • API Documentation: api.ethnos.app/docs • API Source Code: GitHub • DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.17049435 • Frontend Source Code: GitHub • DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.17050053 • cruz.rio.br • Expectantes Misericordiae