The reference

Propaganda techniques

Every technique belongs to one family. Families color the archive, filter the quiz, and lay out the reference card. Read the seven of 1937 first if you are new to this.

Before 19147

  • Caricature 1803 Drawing a person or class with its features exaggerated into a type, the banker's belly, the priest's jowls, the enemy leader's mustache, so that the type is recognized before the argument, and the argument is the type. 3 in the archive
  • Staged photography 1855 Arranging a scene and photographing it as if it had been found, so that the camera's reputation for recording what happened lends truth to what was made to happen. 2 in the archive
  • Photo manipulation 1860 Altering a photograph after it is taken, by painting, cutting, airbrushing, or software, so that it shows a person, object, or event that was not there, or hides one that was.
  • Flag-waving 1878 Presenting a proposal as an act of loyalty to the nation, so that supporting it becomes patriotism and questioning it becomes disloyalty. 5 in the archive
  • Appeal to outrage 1898 Provoking anger at an act, a person, or a group so that the audience acts on the anger before it has examined what actually happened. 6 in the archive
  • Weasel words 1900 Using qualifiers, vague attributions, and hedges that make a claim sound firm while leaving the speaker committed to nothing that could be checked or held against them. 1 in the archive
  • Controlled opposition 1901 Creating, capturing, or funding a group that appears to oppose you, so that dissent flows into a channel you control and the real opposition is displaced or discredited.

First World War3

  • Dehumanizing imagery 1917 Drawing or photographing a group as animals, insects, monsters, or objects so that the viewer sees something to be exterminated or handled rather than people to be answered. 3 in the archive
  • Native advertising 1917 Advertising designed to look like the editorial content around it, so that the audience reads a paid message with the trust it gives to independent reporting. 1 in the archive
  • Slogan 1917 A short, memorable phrase that stands in for an argument, so that the audience remembers and repeats the conclusion without ever having been given the reasoning. 21 in the archive

Between the wars21

  • Juxtaposition 1919 Placing two images side by side, or cutting from one to the next, so that the viewer reads a relation between them, cause, contrast, or identity, that neither image states and no sentence has to defend. 2 in the archive
  • Color and typography 1920 Using color and letterforms to carry a claim the words do not make: one side red and the other white, the enemy's name in a foreign-looking face, the key word in capitals so that the eye obeys before the mind has read. 3 in the archive
  • Heroic scale 1920 Drawing the leader, the nation, or the cause far larger than the people and places around it, so that size does the work of argument: what is this big must be this important. 2 in the archive
  • Photo cropping 1920 Choosing the edges of a photograph so that what lies outside them cannot contradict what lies inside: the empty half of the square, the photographer beside the victim, the handler beside the leader.
  • Symbol appropriation 1920 Taking a symbol that already carries authority or feeling, a cross, a crown, a flag, a classical pose, and attaching it to a cause, product, or leader so that the symbol's standing passes to the new owner. 3 in the archive
  • Oversimplification 1922 Reducing a complicated question to a single cause, a single choice, or a single sentence, so that the audience accepts a simple answer because it is simple. 10 in the archive
  • Stereotyping 1922 Presenting a simplified, fixed image of a group as though it described every member, so that the audience judges individuals by the image instead of by anything they have done. 5 in the archive
  • Big lie 1925 A falsehood so large and so confidently asserted that the audience cannot believe anyone would dare invent it, and so assumes there must be something to it.
  • Leak and plant 1928 Placing a message in the press through an unattributed leak or a story arranged to look independently reported, so that the audience receives it as news rather than as the interested party's statement.
  • Camera angle 1930 Choosing where the camera stands so that the viewer looks up at the leader, down on the enemy, or out from inside the crowd, and takes the position for a judgment. 2 in the archive
  • Idealized figure 1930 Drawing the worker, soldier, mother, or citizen as a flawless type, young, strong, clean, and smiling, so that the viewer measures herself against a person who does not exist and the regime or brand that drew her. 4 in the archive
  • Misleading maps 1930 Drawing a map so that projection, color, scale, or symbol makes a claim about size, threat, or ownership that the territory does not support.
  • Divide and rule 1933 Setting the groups that might oppose you against each other, by favoring one, defining them against each other, or amplifying their differences, so that none has the strength or the inclination to act together.
  • Mass spectacle 1934 Staging a crowd as an image: thousands arranged in blocks, moving as one, lit and filmed so that the viewer sees unanimity and feels the choice already made. 1 in the archive
  • Bandwagon 1937 Urging the audience to adopt a belief or a product because everyone else already has, so that the fear of being left out replaces a judgment of the thing itself. 9 in the archive
  • Card stacking 1937 Presenting only the facts, figures, and quotations that favor one side, and leaving out everything that doesn't, so that a true selection produces a false impression. 7 in the archive
  • Glittering generalities 1937 Attaching an idea to words that sound like values, such as freedom, progress, or family, so that the audience approves of it without asking what it actually proposes. 8 in the archive
  • Name-calling 1937 Attaching a hostile label to a person, group, or idea so that the audience rejects it without examining the evidence. 6 in the archive
  • Plain folks 1937 Presenting a speaker or a product as ordinary, humble, and "of the people," so that the audience trusts it as one of their own rather than judging it on its merits. 6 in the archive
  • Testimonial 1937 Having a respected or admired person endorse an idea, product, or candidate, so that the audience's regard for the person stands in for a judgment of the thing endorsed.
  • Transfer 1937 Carrying the authority, prestige, or emotional charge of one thing over to another by placing them together, so that a flag, a cross, or a uniform lends its standing to a product or a policy. 14 in the archive

Second World War3

  • Dehumanization 1940 Describing a group as animals, vermin, disease, or objects, so that the moral rules the audience applies to people no longer seem to apply to them. 2 in the archive
  • False dilemma 1940 Presenting two options as the only ones available, usually one unacceptable and one the speaker wants, so that the audience chooses the speaker's without noticing the others. 2 in the archive
  • Obfuscation 1944 Burying a simple fact under technical vocabulary, abstraction, and length, so that the audience cannot find it and either gives up or assumes the speaker knows best.

Cold War40

  • Euphemism 1946 Replacing a blunt or unpleasant word with a mild or technical one, so that the audience is spared the reaction the plain word would produce. 1 in the archive
  • Intentional vagueness 1946 Stating a position so loosely that every listener can hear what they wanted to hear and no listener can later say the speaker promised anything.
  • Loaded language 1946 Choosing words that carry a strong feeling or judgment alongside their meaning, so that the audience absorbs the judgment while believing it has only received the facts. 5 in the archive
  • Manufactured consensus 1947 Producing the appearance that a view is generally held, through coordinated statements, selected voices, and suppression of dissent, so that the audience adopts it to avoid standing alone.
  • Redefinition 1949 Changing what a word means, or attaching a familiar word to a new thing, so that an argument is won by the definition before it is made.
  • Gatekeeping 1950 Controlling which information reaches the audience by controlling the channel it must pass through, so that what is withheld never has to be argued against.
  • Guilt by association 1950 Discrediting a person or an idea by linking it to someone or something the audience already condemns, so that the link does the work an argument should. 2 in the archive
  • Appeal to fear 1953 Raising the audience's fear of a threat, real, exaggerated, or invented, so that the proposed action is accepted as the way to be safe rather than judged on whether it works. 16 in the archive
  • Chart distortion 1954 Drawing a chart so that the picture says something the numbers do not: an axis that starts near the top, a pictogram that grows in area when the quantity grows in length, two series on scales chosen to cross where the argument needs them to.
  • Cherry-picking 1954 Presenting only the data points, studies, or cases that support a conclusion while ignoring the larger body of evidence that would undermine it.
  • False precision 1954 Stating a figure with more exactness than the underlying evidence supports, so that the precision of the number is mistaken for the reliability of the claim.
  • Front groups 1954 An organization created or funded by an interested party to speak in public under a neutral or civic name, so that the party's message arrives with someone else's credibility.
  • Misleading statistics 1954 Presenting numbers that are accurate in themselves but chosen, scaled, or displayed so that the audience draws a conclusion the full data would not support.
  • Scapegoating 1954 Assigning the blame for a complex problem to a single person or group, so that anger has a target and the real causes, and the speaker's own share of them, go unexamined. 2 in the archive
  • Cult of personality 1956 Building a leader into a figure of devotion through relentless praise, imagery, and staged intimacy, so that loyalty to the person replaces judgment of the person's decisions. 3 in the archive
  • Thought-terminating cliché 1961 A short, familiar phrase deployed to end a line of thought or discussion, so that a question that deserves an answer is dismissed instead with a formula. 1 in the archive
  • Appeal to authority 1963 Offering the rank, title, or institutional standing of a source as the reason to accept a claim, in place of the evidence the source would need to be right. 6 in the archive
  • Labeling 1963 Assigning a person, group, or position to a ready-made category, so that the audience responds to the category's reputation instead of to the thing itself. 3 in the archive
  • Manufactured doubt 1969 Presenting a settled question as an open one by amplifying uncertainty, funding contrary studies, and demanding a standard of proof no evidence can meet, so that action is delayed without any claim ever being disproved.
  • Message discipline 1969 Coordinating every speaker in an organization to repeat the same few phrases and avoid all others, so that the audience hears one voice from many mouths and takes the agreement for truth. 1 in the archive
  • Planted question 1969 Arranging for a question to be asked in a public forum by a confederate, so that the speaker can deliver a prepared answer while appearing to respond spontaneously to the public.
  • Common enemy 1970 Building or magnifying an external enemy so that the audience closes ranks behind the speaker and stops questioning the speaker's own conduct. 2 in the archive
  • Us versus them 1970 Dividing the world into an in-group the audience belongs to and an out-group it does not, so that positions are judged by which side holds them rather than by their merits. 3 in the archive
  • Agenda-setting 1972 Controlling which topics the audience thinks about, and how prominently, so that the question of what matters is settled before any question of what is true.
  • Moral panic 1972 Amplifying a minor or unrepresentative behavior into a threat to society's values, so that fear and outrage sweep in measures that would not survive a calm look at the facts.
  • Minimization 1973 Describing a serious matter in language that shrinks it, an isolated incident, a misunderstanding, a technical issue, so that the audience's response is scaled to the words rather than to the event. 1 in the archive
  • Loaded question 1974 A question built on an assumption the respondent has not accepted, so that any direct answer concedes the assumption. 4 in the archive
  • Hyperbole 1975 Exaggerating the scale, quality, or stakes of something far beyond what the evidence supports, so that the audience's sense of proportion is reset before it judges. 5 in the archive
  • Repetition 1977 Saying the same thing so many times, in so many places, that familiarity does the work of evidence and the audience mistakes having heard a claim for having checked it. 4 in the archive
  • Half-truth 1978 A statement that is literally true but leaves out the part that would change what the audience concludes from it.
  • Whataboutism 1978 Answering a criticism by pointing at a fault of the critic or of someone else, so that the original charge is never addressed and the conversation moves to the counter-charge.
  • Dog whistle 1981 Language that carries an ordinary meaning for most of the audience and a second, sharper meaning for a target group, so that the speaker can send the sharper message while denying it.
  • Frame control 1981 Choosing the context in which a fact is presented, gain or loss, cost or investment, problem or opportunity, so that the same fact leads the audience to a different conclusion.
  • Rhetorical question 1981 Putting a claim in the form of a question whose answer is meant to be obvious, so that the audience supplies the conclusion itself and feels it has reasoned rather than been told.
  • Appeal to tradition 1983 Defending a practice or a claim on the grounds that it is old, customary, or how things have always been done, so that its age stands in for a reason. 1 in the archive
  • Media capture 1983 Gaining control over the outlets that inform the public, by ownership, advertising, license, or favor, so that what they publish serves the controlling interest without anyone having to be told what to write.
  • Astroturfing 1985 Manufacturing the appearance of spontaneous public support for a position, through paid letters, staged demonstrations, or fabricated accounts, so that an interested party's campaign looks like a movement.
  • Greenwashing 1986 Spending more on presenting an organization as environmentally responsible than on being so, so that the audience's approval of the image substitutes for scrutiny of the record.
  • Paid expert 1988 Presenting as independent an expert whose opinion has been bought or shaped by the party it favors, so that the audience gives the opinion the weight of disinterested authority.
  • Dysphemism 1991 Replacing a neutral word with a harsh or contemptuous one, so that the audience's distaste for the word attaches to the thing it names. 1 in the archive

After 19917

  • Push polls 1994 A campaign contact disguised as an opinion survey, whose questions exist to plant a damaging claim about an opponent rather than to measure anything.
  • Historical revisionism 1997 Altering the public account of the past, by omission, invention, or the removal of inconvenient people and facts, so that the present arrangement appears to have been inevitable or deserved. 1 in the archive
  • False equivalence 1998 Treating two things as equivalent because they share a feature, when they differ in scale, kind, or consequence so much that the comparison misleads.
  • Burying the lede 2001 Disclosing an inconvenient fact in a place, at a time, or in a form where almost no one will notice it, so that the speaker can later say it was disclosed.
  • Nostalgia 2001 Invoking an idealized past, one the audience half-remembers and half-invents, so that a proposal is accepted as a return to it rather than judged as a change to the present.
  • False balance 2004 Presenting two positions as equally supported when the evidence overwhelmingly favors one, so that the audience concludes the question is open.
  • Quoting out of context 2005 Reproducing a real quotation with the surrounding words removed, so that the speaker appears to have said something they did not mean.

The platform era20

  • Straw man 2006 Restating an opponent's position in a weaker, more extreme, or more absurd form, and then refuting that version instead of the one they hold.
  • Sock puppets 2007 Fictitious online identities operated by one person or organization to praise themselves, attack critics, or simulate independent agreement, so that one voice passes for several.
  • Citation laundering 2008 Passing a claim through a chain of intermediaries, a report, a news story, a speech, a citation, until it acquires a respectable source that conceals where it started.
  • Algorithmic laundering 2012 Manufacturing enough activity around a claim on a platform that the platform's own systems promote it, so that it reaches the mainstream as "trending" or "viral" with its origin hidden.
  • Hashtag hijacking 2012 Seizing a hashtag, keyword, or search term associated with an opponent or a cause and flooding it with unrelated, hostile, or drowning content, so that the original conversation is captured or made unfindable.
  • Brigading 2014 Organizing a group to descend on a target at once, with replies, reports, downvotes, or reviews, so that the target is silenced, buried, or driven off by sheer coordinated volume.
  • Engagement bait 2014 Content built to provoke clicks, shares, comments, or reactions rather than to inform, so that the platform's ranking rewards it and the audience's attention is harvested.
  • Fake reviews 2014 Reviews and ratings written or paid for by the seller, or against a rival, and presented as the independent experience of customers, so that the audience's trust in peers is spent on the seller's behalf.
  • Sealioning 2014 Pursuing a target with relentless, polite requests for evidence and explanation, never accepting any answer, so that the target is exhausted or provoked and the questioner appears reasonable.
  • Meme warfare 2015 Using shareable, remixable images and jokes to carry a political message, so that the audience spreads the message for its humor and absorbs the claim without ever meeting it as an argument.
  • Bot amplification 2016 Using automated accounts to repeat, share, and boost a message, so that platforms and audiences read the manufactured volume as popularity.
  • Firehose of falsehood 2016 Broadcasting a high volume of messages across many channels, rapidly, repetitively, and without regard for consistency or truth, so that the audience is overwhelmed rather than persuaded.
  • Microtargeting 2016 Delivering different messages to different people based on data about them, invisibly to everyone else, so that each audience hears the version built to move it and no one can compare the versions.
  • Spoofed outlets 2016 Websites and accounts built to look like real news organizations, by imitation, a near-identical address, or a plausible local name, so that a message borrows a newsroom's credibility without a newsroom.
  • Censorship by noise 2017 Suppressing an unwelcome message not by blocking it but by burying it under a flood of other content, so that it is technically available and practically unfindable.
  • Deepfakes 2017 Audio, video, or images generated or altered by machine learning to show a real person saying or doing something they did not, or to fabricate an event, with a realism that defeats casual inspection.
  • Paltering 2017 Answering a direct question with a true statement chosen to create a false impression, so that the speaker deceives while saying nothing false.
  • Cheap fakes 2019 Genuine images or recordings altered with ordinary tools, slowed, sped up, cropped, spliced, or simply relabelled, so that they appear to show something they do not.
  • Synthetic personas 2019 Fabricated people, with generated faces, invented biographies, and machine-written output, deployed as commentators, journalists, or experts, so that a message arrives from someone who does not exist.
  • Rage farming 2021 Deliberately posting provocative or offensive content to generate angry responses, because the anger drives engagement, and the engagement drives reach and revenue.

Undated2

  • Distraction c. 100 AD Drawing the audience's attention to something vivid and beside the point, so that the matter the speaker would rather not discuss drops out of view.
  • Appeal to pity c. 350 BC Presenting suffering, one's own or someone else's, so that the audience's sympathy substitutes for a judgment about whether the request attached to it is justified. 7 in the archive