propaganda technique

Exaggeration and minimisation

Also called: Magnification, Minimisation

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

How it works

Scale shapes how much people care. A modest change becomes a crisis, or a serious harm becomes a minor issue, simply through the words and comparisons chosen.

Examples

"This minor tax change will destroy small businesses."

The likely effect is far smaller than the language suggests.

"It was just a small data incident," about a breach of millions of records.

The scale of the harm is played down.

How to spot it

Extreme words (destroy, catastrophe, nothing, trivial).
No numbers to anchor the scale.
Comparisons chosen to inflate or deflate.

How to respond

Ask for the numbers.
Compare with relevant baselines.
Restate the claim at its actual scale.