Propaganda and persuasion techniques

Propaganda techniques are ways of shaping what people believe without giving them good reasons: charged words, appeals to fear or loyalty, selective facts and constant repetition. Knowing their names makes them easier to notice, in the news, in advertising and in your own writing.

In-depth guides

• Appeal to fear

  An appeal to fear builds support for an idea by making the audience afraid of what will happen otherwise, often exaggerating the threat or offering no evidence for it.

• Appeal to pity

  An appeal to pity seeks agreement by evoking sympathy, guilt or compassion instead of giving reasons relevant to the claim.

• Card stacking

  Card stacking presents only the facts that support one side and leaves out those that do not, giving a distorted overall picture.

• Casting doubt

  Casting doubt questions the credibility of a person, institution or finding without giving grounds, to make the audience distrust it.

• Causal oversimplification

  Causal oversimplification attributes an outcome to a single cause when it has several.

• Exaggeration and minimisation

  Exaggeration and minimisation represent something as much larger or much smaller than it really is, to make it seem more or less important.

• Firehose of falsehood

  The firehose of falsehood floods channels with a high volume of messages, many false or contradictory, faster than they can be checked.

• Flag-waving

  Flag-waving justifies an action or idea by appealing to patriotism, national identity or group loyalty instead of evidence.

• Framing

  Framing presents an issue through a chosen perspective, emphasising some aspects and hiding others, so that one conclusion seems natural.

• Gaslighting

  Gaslighting makes people doubt their own memory, perception or judgement by persistently denying facts they have witnessed.

• Glittering generalities

  Glittering generalities attach vague, attractive words such as freedom, democracy or the future to an idea so that it is accepted without examination.

• Half-truth

  A half-truth is a statement that is literally true but leaves out information in a way that creates a false impression.

• Information overload

  Information overload buries the important facts under so much detail that the audience cannot separate what matters from what does not.

• Intentional vagueness

  Intentional vagueness uses deliberately unclear language so that the audience reads in what it wants and the speaker cannot be pinned down.

• Loaded language

  Loaded language uses words with strong emotional connotations to influence the audience, so that a judgement is delivered by the wording rather than argued for.

• Name calling

  Name calling attaches a negative label to a person, group or idea so that the audience rejects it without examining it.

• Quoting out of context

  Quoting out of context removes words from their surroundings so that they appear to mean something different from what the speaker intended.

• Repetition

  Repetition makes a claim persuasive by stating it again and again, regardless of evidence.

• Scapegoating

  Scapegoating blames a person or group for a complex problem, usually one they did not cause or caused only in part.

• Slogans

  A slogan is a brief, memorable phrase that packs a position into a few words, persuading through rhythm and repetition rather than argument.

• Stereotyping

  Stereotyping attributes fixed traits to everyone in a group, so that individuals are judged by the group label instead of by what they say or do.

• Thought-terminating cliché

  A thought-terminating cliché is a short, familiar phrase used to end a discussion and discourage further thought.

• Us versus them

  Us-versus-them framing divides people into a virtuous in-group and a threatening out-group, so that loyalty decides which claims are accepted.

• Whataboutism

  Whataboutism answers a criticism by pointing to someone else's wrongdoing instead of addressing the criticism itself.

Full reference list

89 techniques with a one-line summary.

Ad Hominem

Attacks the person making the argument.

Ad Nauseam

Repeatedly presents a message to increase familiarity.

Agenda Setting

News media influencing the importance of public agenda topics through frequent coverage.

Appeal to Authority

Citing prominent figures to support a position or idea.

Appeal to Fear

Creates anxiety by warning of negative consequences.

Appeal to Grievance

Recites past injuries or humiliations to justify present hostility or policy.

Appeal to Pity

Elicits sympathy to gain support.

Appeal to Prejudice

Exploits existing biases and prejudices.

Artificial Dichotomy

Presents only two options as if they were the only possibilities.

Bandwagon

Encourages adoption because "everyone else is doing it."

Beautiful People

Using famous or attractive people to suggest happiness or success with a product or ideology.

Big Lie

Repeated articulation of events with elements of truth to supplant accurate perceptions.

Black-and-white Fallacy

Presenting only two choices, with the propagated idea as the better option.

Card Stacking

Presents only favorable information, omitting negative aspects.

Causal Oversimplification

Assumes a single cause for an outcome that has several.

Classical Conditioning

Associating A with B to elicit physical reaction when A is presented alone.

Cognitive Dissonance

Exploiting desire for consistency, e.g., using actor's endorsement to change minds.

Conspiracy Claim

Attributes events to secret coordination by a hidden group without verifiable evidence.

Cult of Personality

Creating idealized heroic image via mass media to promote desired positions.

Deification

Presents an idea or person as holy or sacred.

Demonizing the Enemy

Making opponents appear subhuman or immoral through suggestion or false accusations.

Demoralization

Eroding fighting spirit to encourage surrender or defection.

Dictat

Simplifying decisions by telling audience exact actions, using authority figures.

Disinformation

Creating or deleting information to make false records, including forgery of media.

Divide and Rule

Gaining power by breaking larger concentrations into less powerful pieces.

Door-in-the-face Technique

Increasing acceptance by first offering a higher price, then reducing it.

Doubt

Questions the credibility of someone or something without giving grounds.

Dysphemism

Using negative connotation expressions, opposite of euphemism.

Euphemism

Using innocuous words to replace offensive or unpleasant ones.

Euphoria

Using events generating happiness to boost morale, e.g., declaring holidays.

Exaggeration

Stretching truth to make something appear more powerful.

False Accusations

Claiming wrongdoing unsupported by facts.

False and Misleading Information

Presents untrue statements as facts.

Fear, Uncertainty, Doubt (FUD)

Disseminating negative, dubious information to undermine credibility.

Firehose of Falsehood

Broadcasting rapid, repetitive, continuous messages over multiple channels without regard for truth.

Flag-waving

Justifying actions as patriotic, potentially omitting rational examination.

Flak

Efforts to discredit organizations or individuals disagreeing with prevailing assumptions.

Foot-in-the-door Technique

Gaining small favor first to create psychological debt, then asking for larger favor.

Framing

Social construction of phenomena by media or leaders to influence perception of meanings.

Gaslighting

Using denial, misdirection, and lying to sow doubt in target's memory or sanity.

Gish Gallop

Bombarding opponent with complex questions rapidly to make them appear uninformed.

Glittering Generalities

Employs vague, emotionally appealing words without concrete meaning.

Guilt by Association

Discrediting by suggesting idea is popular with hated groups.

Half-truth

Deceptive statement including some truth.

Information Overload

Overwhelming with information to reduce decision quality, prompt disengagement.

Intentional Vagueness

Deliberately vague generalities for audience to interpret, forgoing judgment.

Labeling

Using euphemism to increase or dysphemism to diminish perceived quality.

Latitudes of Acceptance

Techniques to increase acceptance bounds, e.g., taking extreme position first.

Limited Hangout

Admitting some truth while withholding key damaging facts when cover is shredded.

Loaded Language

Uses words with strong positive or negative connotations.

Love Bombing

Cutting off social support and bombarding with affection to isolate and recruit to cult or ideology.

Lying and Deception

Basis for techniques like Ad Hominem, Big Lie, involving dishonesty.

Managing the News

Confining to few points and repeating, consistent with classical conditioning.

Milieu Control

Controlling social environment and ideas through social pressure.

Minimisation

Deception involving denial and rationalization, opposite of exaggeration.

Missing Information

Intentionally leaves out negative or contradictory details.

Modeling

Learning through imitation, e.g., watching appealing person buy products.

Name-calling

Uses negative labels or stereotypes to create prejudice.

Non Sequitur

Logical fallacy where conclusion does not follow from argument.

Obfuscation

Deliberately vague generalities for audience interpretation, forgoing judgment.

Oversimplification

Using favorable generalities for simple answers to complex problems.

Paltering

Actively using selective truthful statements to mislead.

Pens\u00e9e Unique

Enforced reduction of discussion with overly simplistic phrases.

Plain Folks

Portrays the propagandist as being "of the people," relatable to the average person.

Presenting Opinions as Facts

States beliefs as if they were proven truths.

Product Placement

Subtly features branded products in media.

Quotes out of Context

Selective editing changing meanings.

Rationalization

Using vague, pleasant phrases to justify questionable acts or beliefs.

Red Herring

Introduces irrelevant information to distract.

Reductio ad Hitlerum

Rejects an idea by associating it with a group or person the audience despises.

Repetition

Repeating symbols or slogans for audience memory.

Scapegoating

Blames an individual or group for problems.

Semantic Satiation

Repeating damaging words for trivial accusations to normalize and dismiss impact.

Slogans

Brief, striking phrases for emotional appeals.

Smears

Efforts to damage reputation by negative propaganda.

Snob Appeal

Suggests using a product will make one part of an elite group.

Stereotyping

Arousing prejudices by labeling as feared or undesirable.

Straw Man

Misrepresenting opponent's position to refute a superficially similar proposition.

Symbols

Uses culturally significant symbols to evoke emotions.

Testimonial

Uses endorsements from well-known figures or experts.

Third Party Technique

Using seemingly independent sources to deliver premeditated message.

Thought-terminating Clich\u00e9

Common phrases to quell cognitive dissonance.

Thought-terminating Cliché

A short, generic phrase that discourages critical thought and ends discussion.

Threat / Intimidation

Announces or implies harm to coerce or to signal the fate of a target group.

Transfer

Links a concept with something respected (or disrespected) to transfer feelings.

Unstated Assumption

Repeatedly implying concept without explicit statement for credibility.

Us-versus-them Framing

Frames an issue as a conflict between an in-group and a hostile out-group, discouraging nuance.

Virtue Words

Words producing positive image, e.g., peace, hope, freedom.

Whataboutism

Responds to criticism by pointing out similar behavior in the accuser.

Several summaries in the reference list are adapted from Wikipedia's Propaganda techniques, available under CC BY-SA 4.0. The in-depth guides are our own.