Cognitive Engineering

When we think of propaganda these days it’s hard not to conjure up images and posters from the Second World War, but was it always this way? This week we discuss propaganda. Does propaganda work anymore or have we, as a society, become immune to propaganda? We explain the concept of “rewired propaganda”, internet memes, clickbait and the differences between misinformation and disinformation. We debate the hypothesis that propaganda is more about style rather than substance and finally, share some of our all-time favourite pieces of propaganda. A few things we mentioned in this podcast: - The Influenza of Evil https://slatestarcodex.com/2015/01/13/evil-is-anti-inductive/ - Overview of 21st Century Propaganda https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Overview_of_21st-century_propaganda - Propaganda as Signalling https://www.almendron.com/tribuna/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/propaganda-as-signaling.pdf - The Psychology of Fake News https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1364661321000516 - ‘The Lambeth Walk’