The US has been honing its psychological warfare skills since the 19th century, when it started sending anthropologists onto battlefields, says Annalee Newitz

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/15789794

Then things got weirder. Edward Bernays, nephew of Sigmund Freud, worked with US intelligence to combine his uncleā€™s work with public relations. Ultimately, he used hisĀ marketing acumenĀ to help the CIA foment a coup in Guatemala in the 1950s. His work is partly why so many propaganda campaigns resemble ads ā€“ both use psychology in an attempt to change audiencesā€™ behaviour.

As theĀ Cambridge AnalyticaĀ scandal revealed in 2018, US political operatives continue to use this toolkit. Instead of sending anthropologists into war zones, they build ā€œpsychographic profilesā€ of people by harvesting their data from social media sites, then targeting them with ads.

  • Optional@lemmy.worldOP
    5Ā·
    7 months ago

    Then things got weirder. Edward Bernays, nephew of Sigmund Freud, worked with US intelligence to combine his uncleā€™s work with public relations. Ultimately, he used hisĀ marketing acumenĀ to help the CIA foment a coup in Guatemala in the 1950s. His work is partly why so many propaganda campaigns resemble ads ā€“ both use psychology in an attempt to change audiencesā€™ behaviour.

    As theĀ Cambridge AnalyticaĀ scandal revealed in 2018, US political operatives continue to use this toolkit. Instead of sending anthropologists into war zones, they build ā€œpsychographic profilesā€ of people by harvesting their data from social media sites, then targeting them with ads.