Post by larry g on Aug 1, 2004 0:23:50 GMT -5
this is an article i found which accuratly describes bush's campaign of fear and how it works.
WASHINGTON (Reuters) --
President George W. Bush may
be tapping into solid human
psychology when he invokes
the September 11 attacks while
campaigning for the next
election, U.S. researchers said
on Thursday.
Talking about death can raise people's need for
psychological security, the researchers report in
studies to be published in the December issue of
the journal Psychological Science and the
September issue of the Personality and Social
Psychology Bulletin.
"There are people all over who are claiming every
time Bush is in trouble he generates fear by
declaring an imminent threat," said Sheldon
Solomon of Skidmore College in Saratoga
Springs, New York, who worked on the study.
"We are saying this is psychologically useful," said
Solomon.
Jeff Greenberg, a professor of psychology at
the University of Arizona in Tucson, said
generating fear was a common tactic.
"A lot of leaders gain their appeal by helping
people feel they are heroic, particularly in a fight
against evil," Greenberg said in a telephone
interview from Hawaii, where he presented the
findings to a meeting of the American
Psychological Association.
"Sometimes that may be the right thing to do.
But it is a psychological approach, particularly
when death is close to peoples' consciousness."
For their first study, Solomon, Greenberg and
colleagues asked students to think about either
their own death or a neutral topic.
They then read the campaign statements of
three hypothetical candidates for governor, each
with a different leadership style. One was
charismatic, said Solomon.
"That was a person who declared our country to
be great and the people in it to be special,"
Solomon, who worked on the study, said in a
telephone interview.
The others were task-oriented -- focusing on
the job to be done -- or relationship-oriented
-- with a "let's get it done together" style,
Solomon said.
Fearing doom, choosing
charisma
The students who thought about death were
much more likely to choose the charismatic
leader, they found. Only four out of about 100
chose that imaginary leader when thinking about
exams, but 30 did after thinking about death.
Greenberg, Solomon and colleagues then
decided to test the idea further and set up four
separate studies at different universities.
"In one we asked half the people to think about
the September 11 attacks, or to think about
watching TV," Solomon said. "What we found
was staggering."
When asked to think about television, the 100 or
so volunteers did not approve of Bush or his
policies in Iraq. But when asked to think about
Sept. 11 first and then asked about their
attitudes to Bush, another 100 volunteers had
very different reactions.
"They had a very strong approval of President
Bush and his policy in Iraq," Solomon said.
Solomon, a social psychologist who specializes in
terrorism, said it was very rare for a person's
opinions to differ so strongly depending on the
situation.
Another study focused directly on Bush and his
Democratic challenger, Massachusetts Sen. John
Kerry.
The volunteers were aged from 18 into their 50s
and described themselves as ranging from liberal
to deeply conservative. No matter what a
person's political conviction, thinking about
death made them tend to favor Bush, Solomon
said. Otherwise, they preferred Kerry.
"I think this should concern anybody," Solomon said. "If I was speaking lightly, I would say that
people in their, quote, right minds, unquote, don't care much for President Bush and his policies in
Iraq."
He wants voters to be aware of psychological pressures and how they are used.
"If people are aware that thinking about death makes them act differently, then they don't act
differently," Solomon said
WASHINGTON (Reuters) --
President George W. Bush may
be tapping into solid human
psychology when he invokes
the September 11 attacks while
campaigning for the next
election, U.S. researchers said
on Thursday.
Talking about death can raise people's need for
psychological security, the researchers report in
studies to be published in the December issue of
the journal Psychological Science and the
September issue of the Personality and Social
Psychology Bulletin.
"There are people all over who are claiming every
time Bush is in trouble he generates fear by
declaring an imminent threat," said Sheldon
Solomon of Skidmore College in Saratoga
Springs, New York, who worked on the study.
"We are saying this is psychologically useful," said
Solomon.
Jeff Greenberg, a professor of psychology at
the University of Arizona in Tucson, said
generating fear was a common tactic.
"A lot of leaders gain their appeal by helping
people feel they are heroic, particularly in a fight
against evil," Greenberg said in a telephone
interview from Hawaii, where he presented the
findings to a meeting of the American
Psychological Association.
"Sometimes that may be the right thing to do.
But it is a psychological approach, particularly
when death is close to peoples' consciousness."
For their first study, Solomon, Greenberg and
colleagues asked students to think about either
their own death or a neutral topic.
They then read the campaign statements of
three hypothetical candidates for governor, each
with a different leadership style. One was
charismatic, said Solomon.
"That was a person who declared our country to
be great and the people in it to be special,"
Solomon, who worked on the study, said in a
telephone interview.
The others were task-oriented -- focusing on
the job to be done -- or relationship-oriented
-- with a "let's get it done together" style,
Solomon said.
Fearing doom, choosing
charisma
The students who thought about death were
much more likely to choose the charismatic
leader, they found. Only four out of about 100
chose that imaginary leader when thinking about
exams, but 30 did after thinking about death.
Greenberg, Solomon and colleagues then
decided to test the idea further and set up four
separate studies at different universities.
"In one we asked half the people to think about
the September 11 attacks, or to think about
watching TV," Solomon said. "What we found
was staggering."
When asked to think about television, the 100 or
so volunteers did not approve of Bush or his
policies in Iraq. But when asked to think about
Sept. 11 first and then asked about their
attitudes to Bush, another 100 volunteers had
very different reactions.
"They had a very strong approval of President
Bush and his policy in Iraq," Solomon said.
Solomon, a social psychologist who specializes in
terrorism, said it was very rare for a person's
opinions to differ so strongly depending on the
situation.
Another study focused directly on Bush and his
Democratic challenger, Massachusetts Sen. John
Kerry.
The volunteers were aged from 18 into their 50s
and described themselves as ranging from liberal
to deeply conservative. No matter what a
person's political conviction, thinking about
death made them tend to favor Bush, Solomon
said. Otherwise, they preferred Kerry.
"I think this should concern anybody," Solomon said. "If I was speaking lightly, I would say that
people in their, quote, right minds, unquote, don't care much for President Bush and his policies in
Iraq."
He wants voters to be aware of psychological pressures and how they are used.
"If people are aware that thinking about death makes them act differently, then they don't act
differently," Solomon said