The mechanism of the psychology behind the media and the right

[Az]

I just read an article in the current Scientific American: Mind. And it struck me that it spoke to exactly what the media and the right are playing to.

The article was a short report on a study done at Virginia Polytechnic University by Kimberlee Weaver. In it she gave different volunteers copies of opinions written by a fictional focus group. In some of the papers given to them various people expressed the same opinion in different reports. In some of the papers she gave them the same person expressed the same opinion repeatedly. She then asked the volunteers how they felt the study group felt about the issue and how the general public felt about it as well.

What the study found was that it wasn't a clear representation across the board that lead the volunteers to assume the focus group supported the issue or the general public. But rather it was the familiarity brought about by repetition that caused them to presume the entire group accepted an idea.

In a nut shell it doesn't matter how many people as saying a thing as long as the thing is repeated enough times. The mind is not a good judge of distribution and presumes based on familiarity of an idea to decide whether it is accepted by the community. So tell a lie enough times and the people will buy it.

[SpiralHawk]

1. republicons = a corupt cabal of treasonous cronies

republicons = a corupt cabal of treasonous cronies
republicons = a corupt cabal of treasonous cronies
republicons = a corupt cabal of treasonous cronies
republicons = a corupt cabal of treasonous cronies
republicons = a corupt cabal of treasonous cronies
republicons = a corupt cabal of treasonous cronies
republicons = a corupt cabal of treasonous cronies
republicons = a corupt cabal of treasonous cronies
republicons = a corupt cabal of treasonous cronies
republicons = a corupt cabal of treasonous cronies
republicons = a corupt cabal of treasonous cronies
republicons = a corupt cabal of treasonous cronies
republicons = a corupt cabal of treasonous cronies
republicons = a corupt cabal of treasonous cronies
republicons = a corupt cabal of treasonous cronies
republicons = a corupt cabal of treasonous cronies
republicons = a corupt cabal of treasonous cronies
republicons = a corupt cabal of treasonous cronies
republicons = a corupt cabal of treasonous cronies
republicons = a corupt cabal of treasonous cronies
republicons = a corupt cabal of treasonous cronies
republicons = a corupt cabal of treasonous cronies
republicons = a corupt cabal of treasonous cronies
republicons = a corupt cabal of treasonous cronies
republicons = a corupt cabal of treasonous cronies
republicons = a corupt cabal of treasonous cronies
republicons = a corupt cabal of treasonous cronies
republicons = a corupt cabal of treasonous cronies
republicons = a corupt cabal of treasonous cronies
republicons = a corupt cabal of treasonous cronies
republicons = a corupt cabal of treasonous cronies
republicons = a corupt cabal of treasonous cronies
republicons = a corupt cabal of treasonous cronies
republicons = a corupt cabal of treasonous cronies
republicons = a corupt cabal of treasonous cronies
republicons = a corupt cabal of treasonous cronies
republicons = a corupt cabal of treasonous cronies
republicons = a corupt cabal of treasonous cronies
republicons = a corupt cabal of treasonous cronies
republicons = a corupt cabal of treasonous cronies
republicons = a corupt cabal of treasonous cronies
republicons = a corupt cabal of treasonous cronies
republicons = a corupt cabal of treasonous cronies
republicons = a corupt cabal of treasonous cronies
republicons = a corupt cabal of treasonous cronies
republicons = a corupt cabal of treasonous cronies
republicons = a corupt cabal of treasonous cronies
republicons = a corupt cabal of treasonous cronies
republicons = a corupt cabal of treasonous cronies
republicons = a corupt cabal of treasonous cronies
republicons = a corupt cabal of treasonous cronies
republicons = a corupt cabal of treasonous cronies
republicons = a corupt cabal of treasonous cronies
republicons = a corupt cabal of treasonous cronies
republicons = a corupt cabal of treasonous cronies
republicons = a corupt cabal of treasonous cronies
republicons = a corupt cabal of treasonous cronies
republicons = a corupt cabal of treasonous cronies
republicons = a corupt cabal of treasonous cronies
republicons = a corupt cabal of treasonous cronies
republicons = a corupt cabal of treasonous cronies
republicons = a corupt cabal of treasonous cronies
republicons = a corupt cabal of treasonous cronies
republicons = a corupt cabal of treasonous cronies

[treestar]

10. Maybe the same theory applies to the truth!

The truth has to be repeated over and over, too. We tend to think it can stand on its own with one repetition, but not around the right wing propagandists!

[NMMNG]

2. Hitler discovered this decades ago

So tell a lie enough times and the people will buy it.

[DemGa]

3. This might be related to an "availability hueristic"

That is, if I see it often enough, it must represent the larger whole. I think the devious repug mind has an instinctive knowledge of the use of this in "creating" reality.

[Emit]

4. Bush quote...

"See in my line of work, you got to keep repeating things over and over and over again for the truth to sink in, to kind of catapult the propaganda.” Bush, May 24, 2005

[Nikki Stone1]

7. This should be repeated everyday!

We should never forget this one.

[Swamp Rat]

5. Americans are heavily invested in lies.

[IChing]

6. Asch conformity experiments

Experiments led by Solomon Asch asked students to participate in a "vision test." In reality, all but one of the participants were confederates of the experimenter, and the study was really about how the remaining student would react to the confederates' behavior.

The participants — the real subject and the confederates — were all seated in a classroom where they were told to announce out loud their judgment of the length of several lines drawn on a series of displays. They were asked which line was longer than the other, which were the same length, etc. The confederates had been prearranged to all give an incorrect answer to the tests.

While most subjects answered correctly, many showed extreme discomfort, and a high proportion (32%) conformed to the erroneous majority view of the others in the room when there were at least three confederates present, even when the majority said that two lines different in length by several inches were the same length. When the confederates were not unanimous in their judgment, subjects were much more likely to defect than when the confederates all agreed. Control subjects with no exposure to a majority view had no trouble giving the correct answer.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asch_conformity_experiments

[Az]

8. Mirror neurons in action

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mirror_neurons

The discovery of mirror neurons is consider by some to be on par with the discovery of DNA in biology. These neurons figure so importantly in so many of our social, empathic, learning, and altruistic tendencies.

[IChing]

9. Thanks I forgot about that discovery

Interesting, but I don't see how you tie that to your original thesis.

[Az]

11. Wasn't trying to

Was merely relating to your story. That would be a group dynamic behavioral situation which are exactly were Mirror Neurons come into play.