Podcast
Questions and Answers
Which of the following best describes the role of propaganda as utilized by the Nazi regime?
Which of the following best describes the role of propaganda as utilized by the Nazi regime?
- To promote objective studies of truth for academic fairness among the masses.
- To encourage critical thinking and independent analysis among citizens.
- To shape perceptions and behaviors to align with the regime's objectives. (correct)
- To present an unbiased account of historical events.
How did the Nazi regime utilize existing prejudices to further their propaganda efforts?
How did the Nazi regime utilize existing prejudices to further their propaganda efforts?
- By introducing entirely new prejudices that had not existed before.
- By ignoring existing beliefs and focusing on rational arguments.
- By suppressing all forms of preexisting beliefs and biases.
- By amplifying and exploiting prevalent anti-Semitic beliefs to portray Jews as a threat. (correct)
What condition increased the likelihood of people conforming to information?
What condition increased the likelihood of people conforming to information?
- Runaway inflation and economic collapse (correct)
- Abundance of education
- A stable political climate
- Economic prosperity
What is the key distinction between informational and normative conformity in the context of Nazi Germany?
What is the key distinction between informational and normative conformity in the context of Nazi Germany?
How did the constant surveillance and threat of denunciation contribute to conformity in Nazi Germany?
How did the constant surveillance and threat of denunciation contribute to conformity in Nazi Germany?
What are 'injunctive norms'?
What are 'injunctive norms'?
What are 'descriptive norms'?
What are 'descriptive norms'?
In the study of littering behavior, how did making an injunctive norm salient affect the likelihood of littering?
In the study of littering behavior, how did making an injunctive norm salient affect the likelihood of littering?
Why might a public service message designed to decrease alcohol consumption among college students sometimes backfire and lead to increased consumption?
Why might a public service message designed to decrease alcohol consumption among college students sometimes backfire and lead to increased consumption?
In the study about household energy usage, what made the 'descriptive norm plus injunctive norm' message uniformly successful in promoting energy conservation?
In the study about household energy usage, what made the 'descriptive norm plus injunctive norm' message uniformly successful in promoting energy conservation?
Flashcards
Propaganda
Propaganda
Deliberate, systematic attempt to shape perceptions, manipulate cognitions, and direct behavior to achieve a desired response.
Lebensraum
Lebensraum
The idea that the German people needed to expand their territory for racial purity and survival.
Injunctive Norms
Injunctive Norms
What people perceive as approved or disapproved behavior by others.
Descriptive Norms
Descriptive Norms
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"Boomerang Effect"
"Boomerang Effect"
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Study Notes
Power of Propaganda
- Propaganda is the deliberate, systematic attempt to shape perceptions, manipulate cognitions, and direct behavior to achieve a desired response.
- Propaganda was used as a tool of the state by the Nazi regime in the 1930s.
- Joseph Goebbels was appointed head of the Nazi Ministry of Popular Enlightenment and Propaganda in 1933.
- The Ministry of Propaganda controlled all forms of media and disseminated Nazi ideology through posters and rallies.
- Nazi propaganda was taught in schools and promoted in Hitler Youth groups.
- The German people had to protect their racial purity and increase their "Lebensraum" (living space) through conquest.
- Lebensraum concerns led to World War II and racial purity concerns led to the Holocaust.
- Prejudice, especially anti-Semitism, was a major factor in the German people's acquiescence to the destruction of European Jewry.
- Nazi propaganda strengthened anti-Semitism by portraying Jews as destroyers of Aryan racial purity and a threat to German survival.
- Jews were described as pests, parasites, and bloodsuckers.
- Germany initially was no more prejudiced against Jews than its neighbors in the 1930s, propaganda was one of many persuasive messages leading to attitude change.
- Propaganda initiated social influence processes, and in a totalitarian regime, the state is seen as the expert.
- Germans learned new "facts" about Jews and solutions to the "Jewish question" through propaganda.
- People experiencing a crisis, like runaway inflation and economic collapse in Germany, conformed to expert-delivered information.
- Germans who disagreed with Nazi propaganda faced a difficult situation, as the Nazi ideology permeated daily life.
- Hitler Youth groups encouraged children to spy on their parents and report them if they were not "good" Nazis.
- Neighbors, coworkers, and passersby could report disloyal behavior.
- This situation led to normative conformity, and public compliance without private acceptance.
- Rejection, ostracism, torture, or death motivated normative conformity, and ordinary Germans conformed to Nazi propaganda.
- Public resistance to Hitler's ideas was limited due to social influence processes, prejudice, and the totalitarian system.
Using Social Influence to Promote Beneficial Behavior
- Conformity, both informational and normative, is common even in individualistic cultures like the United States.
- Social norms can subtly influence the public to conform to correct, socially approved behavior with a model of normative conduct.
- Robert Cialdini, Raymond Reno, and Carl Kallgren developed the model.
- Injunctive norms relate to what most people in a culture approve or disapprove of.
- Descriptive norms relate to what people actually do
- Cialdini and colleagues explored how injunctive and descriptive norms affect the likelihood to litter.
- In field experiments, used patrons of a city library returning to their cars in the parking lot.
- The Confederate either just walked by (control group), dropped an empty bag (descriptive norm condition), picked up litter (injunctive norm condition).
- The conditions occurred in either a heavily littered or Clean environment.
- Participants exposed to different norms and environment, they found a handbill on their car windshield, and they could throw it on the ground (littering) or bring inside their car dispose of it later.
- Research showed in a certain situation how confederate serves as an example of behaviour that can be copied in both a clean and littered environment
Using Norms to Change Behavior: Beware the "Boomerang Effect"
- University administrators tried decreasing alcohol binge drinking on campuses by informing students that average students consume a low amount per week.
- Students overestimate peer drinking habits, and should change their own habits to conform with the average.
- This approach can backfire and cause students who didn't drink or drank very little, to increase their intake habits.
- Conformity based messaging has to consider two types of people those above average and those below average who engage in undesirable behaviours.
- Wesley shultz and colleagues test this idea by focusing on conserving electrical energy in the home.
- They measured california home owner energy usage and split them into two groups: above average and below average.
- Households would receive feedback about energy usage, and provide suggestions for energy conservation methods.
- Households received info on how much overage household energy usage (descriptive norm condition) as wee as some subtle additions: they gave a smiley face for low energy usage and a sad face for high energy usage.
- Smiley/sad face represents the approval or disapproval of their energy usage habits.
- Weeks follow researchers once again measured usage habits.
- Descriptive norm message had a positive effect who consumed more energy than average and a boomerang effect on who consumer less.
- Descriptive and Injuctive message had a positive effect on those had used both more energy and less energy than average previously.
- Using smiley faces indicates that those who conserves are doing the right thing.
- Using smiley and sad faces to give injunctive norm feedback and descriptive norm energy- usage information, utility companies in the US and in major metropolitan areas are now benefiting.
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