Deliberate use of fear-based tactics
Fearmongering
, or
scaremongering
, is a form of manipulation that causes fear by using exaggerated rumors of impending danger.
[1]
Theory
[
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]
According to
evolutionary anthropology
and
evolutionary biology
, humans have a strong impulse to pay attention to danger because awareness of dangers has been important for survival throughout their
evolutionary
history. The effect is amplified by
cultural evolution
when the
news media
cater to people's appetite for news about dangers.
[2]
The attention of citizens is a fiercely contested resource that
news media
,
political campaigners
,
social reformers
,
advertisers
,
civil society organizations
,
missionaries
, and cultural
event makers
compete over, according to
attention economy
.
[3]
Social agents
of all kinds are often using fearmongering as a tactic in the competition for attention, as illustrated by the examples below.
[2]
[4]
Fearmongering can have strong
psychological
effects, which may be intended or
unintended
. One hypothesized effect is
mean world syndrome
in which people perceive the world as more dangerous than it really is.
[5]
[6]
Fearmongering can make people fear the wrong things, and use too many resources to avoid rare and unlikely dangers while more probable dangers are ignored. For example, some parents have kept their children at home to prevent
abduction
while they paid less attention to more common dangers such as
lifestyle diseases
or
traffic accidents
.
[7]
Fearmongering can produce a
rally around the flag effect
by increasing support for the incumbent political leaders. For example, official warnings about the risk of
terrorist
attacks have led to increased support for the proposed policies of
US Presidents
.
[8]
[9]
Collective fear is likely to produce an
authoritarian mentality
, desire for a
strong leader
, strict
discipline
,
punitiveness
,
intolerance
,
xenophobia
, and less
democracy
, according to
regality theory
. Historically, the effect has been exploited by
political entrepreneurs
in many countries for purposes such as increasing support for an
authoritarian
government, avoiding
democratization
, or preparing the population for war.
[10]
Examples
[
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]
Political campaign advertisements
[
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]
"Daisy" advertisement
Daisy
is a famous television commercial that aired in 1964 and was run by
Lyndon B. Johnson
's
presidential campaign
. It begins with a little girl standing in a meadow, birds chirping in the background; she picks and clumsily counts the petals off of a daisy. When she reaches 'nine', an ominous male voice begins a launch countdown. The girl's gaze turns toward the sky and the camera zooms into her eye until her pupil blackens the screen. As the countdown reaches zero, a nuclear explosion flashes on and morphs into a mushroom cloud. While the firestorm rages, Johnson's declares, "These are the stakes! To make a world in which all of God's children can live, or to go into the dark. We must either love each other, or we must die." Another voice then says, "Vote for President Johnson on November 3. The stakes are too high for you to stay home."
[11]
Mass media
[
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]
Fierce economic
competition
is driving commercial
mass media
to rely extensively on scary stories and bad news in a competition that has been characterized as an emotional
arms race
.
[12]
Stories about crime, and especially violent crimes and crimes against children, figure prominently among newspaper headlines. An analysis of US newspapers has found that between 10 and 30% of headlines involve crime and fear, with a tendency to a shift of focus from isolated crime events to more thematic articles about fear.
[13]
In the United Kingdom, the news media have routinely used a focus on gory sex crimes as a parameter of competition. The continued focus on emotionally touching sex crimes has had a strong influence on politics and legislation in the country.
[14]
Product advertisements
[
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]
Advertisers
have also entered the arena with their discovery that "fear sells". Ad campaigns based on fear, sometimes referred to as
shockvertising
, have become increasingly popular in recent years. Fear is a strong emotion and it can be
manipulated
to persuade people into making emotional rather than reasoned choices. From car commercials that imply that having fewer
airbags
will cause the audience's family harm, to
disinfectant
commercials that show
pathogenic bacteria
lurking on
every surface
, fear-based advertising works.
[15]
While using fear in ads has generated some negative reactions by the public, there is evidence to show that "shockvertising" is a highly effective
persuasion
technique, and over the last several years, advertisers have continued to increase their usage of fear in ads in what has been called a "never-ending arms race in the advertising business".
[16]
Author
Ken Ring
was accused of scaremongering by New Zealand politician
Nick Smith
. The Auckland seller of almanacs made predictions about earthquakes and weather patterns based on lunar cycles, and some of his predictions were taken seriously by some members of the public in connection with the
2011 earthquakes
in
Christchurch
, New Zealand.
[17]
Psychological warfare
[
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]
Fearmongering is routinely used in
psychological warfare
for the purpose of influencing a target population. The tactics often involves defamation of an enemy by means of
smear campaigns
.
False flag
attacks have been used as a pretext for starting a war in many cases, including the
Gulf of Tonkin incident
, the
Shelling of Mainila
, and
Operation Himmler
.
Terrorism
is also a kind of psychological warfare. It is creating violence and terror in order to get media attention or to scare an enemy.
[18]
[19]
A remarkable tactic is the so-called
strategy of tension
, which is based on making violence and chaos in order to create
political instability
, to
defame
an opponent, to pave the way for a more
authoritarianism
or
fascist
government, or to prevent the
decolonization
of
colonies
. The strategy of tension is associated in particular with the widespread
political violence
in the so-called
Years of Lead
in the 1960s to 1980s in
Italy
. There were many
terrorist
attacks in the country in these years. Some of these attacks were committed by
right-wing
and
neo-fascist
groups, and other attacks were attributed to
left-wing
groups. Many of the apparent left-wing attacks were suspected or confirmed
false flag
attacks. The main purpose of the strategy of tension in Italy was to prevent the
communists
from gaining power and to pave the way for a
neofascist
government. Historians disagree about who were controlling the strategy of tension, but there is evidence that both national neofascist groups and foreign powers were involved.
[20]
[21]
[22]
[10]
See also
[
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]
References
[
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]
- ^
"fearmongering - definition of fearmongering in English | Oxford Dictionaries"
. February 8, 2017. Archived from
the original
on 2017-02-08.
- ^
a
b
Shoemaker, Pamela J. (1996). "Hardwired for News: Using Biological and Cultural Evolution to Explain the Surveillance Function".
Journal of Communication
.
46
(3): 32?47.
doi
:
10.1111/j.1460-2466.1996.tb01487.x
.
- ^
Zhu, Jian-Hua (1992). "Issue competition and attention distraction: A zero-sum theory of agenda-setting".
Journalism Quarterly
.
69
(4): 825?836.
doi
:
10.1177/107769909206900403
.
S2CID
144203162
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- ^
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Media Edge: Media Logic and Social Reality
. Peter Lang Publishing.
ISBN
978-1433126451
.
- ^
Gerbner, G (1980). "The "mainstreaming" of America: violence profile number 11".
Journal of Communication
.
30
(3): 10?29.
doi
:
10.1111/j.1460-2466.1980.tb01987.x
.
- ^
Signorielli, N (1990). "Television's Mean and Dangerous World: A Continuation of the Cultural Indicators Perspective". In Signorielli, N; Morgan, M (eds.).
Cultivation Analysis: New Directions in Media Effects Research
. Sage. pp. 85?106.
- ^
Glassner, B (1999).
The Culture of Fear: Why Americans are Afraid of the Wrong Things
. Basic Books.
- ^
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Current Research in Social Psychology
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10
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- ^
Nacos, B. L. (2011).
Selling Fear: Counterterrorism, the Media, and Public Opinion
. University Of Chicago Press.
ISBN
978-0226567198
.
- ^
a
b
Fog, A (2017).
Warlike and Peaceful Societies: The Interaction of Genes and Culture
. Open Book Publishers.
ISBN
978-1783744053
.
- ^
"Classic Political Ad: Daisy Girl (1964)"
.
YouTube
. 26 October 2006.
Archived
from the original on 2021-12-19
. Retrieved
25 August
2010
.
- ^
Fuller, J (2010).
What is happening to news: The information explosion and the crisis in journalism
. University of Chicago Press.
ISBN
978-0226005027
.
- ^
Altheide, D. L. (2002).
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. Aldine de Gruyter.
ISBN
978-1138521438
.
- ^
Greer, C (2003).
Sex Crime and the Media: Sex Offending and the Press in a Divided Society
. Routledge.
ISBN
978-1843920045
.
- ^
Nedra Weinreich (3 June 2006).
"Making Fear-Based Campaigns Work"
. Archived from
the original
on 24 December 2008
. Retrieved
15 January
2009
.
- ^
Barbara Righton (December 18, 2006).
"Fear Advertising"
. Archived from
the original
on 23 February 2007
. Retrieved
15 January
2009
.
- ^
"
'Reckless' quake claims not helping, says Smith"
. ONE News. 20 March 2011.
- ^
Weimann, G; Winn, C (1994).
The theater of terror: Mass media and international terrorism
. Longman.
- ^
Altheide, D. L. (2006).
Terrorism and the Politics of Fear
. AltaMira Press.
- ^
Ferraresi, F (1996).
Threats to Democracy: The Radical Right in Italy after the War
. Princeton University Press.
- ^
Cento Bull, A (2007).
Italian Neofascism: The Strategy of Tension and the Politics of Nonreconciliation
. Berghahn Books.
- ^
Willan, P (1991).
Puppetmasters: The Political use of Terrorism in Italy
. Authors Choice Press.