PSYCHOLOGICAL WARFARE The second group of fallacies that we are going to study is the Psychological Warfare.

We have defined this group of fallacies as:

Psychological Warfare
Meaning from Association Misuse of Authority Repeated Assertion Attitude Fitting Tokenism Poisoning the Well Rationalizing Argumentum ad Baculum Argumentum ad Hominem Confident Manner

The group of fallacies that seduce and intimidate mans sensuousness, emotions and subconscious drives.

We have also mentioned that this group of fallacies contains ten types of fallacies.

PSYCHOLOGICAL WARFARE 1: MEANING FROM ASSOCIATION The fallacy of meaning from association is perhaps the most abused fallacy in the production of commercial advertisements.

Here, the advertised products are put side by side with logically unrelated things and ideas, to suggest that if you purchase this or that product you too get the associated things and ideas. For instance, a bottle of whiskey is shown in front of a famous masterpiece painting. The advertisers had carefully calculated it that the intended audience will associate the fine quality of the masterpiece with the quality of the whiskey.

PSYCHOLOGICAL WARFARE 1: MEANING FROM ASSOCIATION

The Marlboro Country is always represented as a romantic and wild scenery, where men conquer the great outdoors. But the real Marlboro Country could actually be like the following image.

PSYCHOLOGICAL WARFARE 1: MEANING FROM ASSOCIATION

This beer commercial The Marlboro There poster always Countrya is associateslogical is more obvious the represented asrelationship between sexy and a romantic and wild beer product with scenery, where men conquer the girls. beer the beer tummy, or the scantily dressed great outdoors.bloat. There is no logical But the real Marlbororelationship not associate Country could But advertisers do between this actually be like this two things.image. and the the following particular beer ladies.

PSYCHOLOGICAL WARFARE 1: MEANING FROM ASSOCIATION

These two cigarette brands associated cigarettes with sexual attractiveness and glamour, although cigarettes have no logical relationship to the two things.

PSYCHOLOGICAL WARFARE 1: MEANING FROM ASSOCIATION

Cigarettes are more logical related with lung cancer. But advertisers would not show images like this.

PSYCHOLOGICAL WARFARE 1: MEANING FROM ASSOCIATION

This beer commercial poster associates the product with sexy and scantily dressed girls. There is no logical relationship between this particular beer and the ladies.

PSYCHOLOGICAL WARFARE 1: MEANING FROM ASSOCIATION

There is a more obvious logical relationship between beer and the beer tummy, or the beer bloat.

But advertisers do not associate this two things.

PSYCHOLOGICAL WARFARE 1: MEANING FROM ASSOCIATION Marshall McLuhan, a pioneering theorist in mass communications, has even suggested that advertisements will not only seduce mans sensuousness and emotions, but even his sub-conscious itself.

This is what McLuhan calls the subliminal seduction.

This same fallacy is employed by politicians whenever they circulate pictures of themselves in a pose with, say, Mother Theresa of Calcutta, or the Pope, or the Archbishop of Manila, or with any other important personalities, in newspapers, self-printed calendars, and posters.

PSYCHOLOGICAL WARFARE 2: MISUSE OF AUTHORITY Since we cannot possibly be experts in all sorts of fields, consulting and appealing to authorities are oftentimes useful. When one finds a mathematical problem too difficult, it is only appropriate to consult ones mathematics professor, or when having problems with an English composition, the best thing to do is to approach the language professor. The fallacy of misuse of authority happens whenever we cite an authority in one given field regarding an issue that is outside his/her field of competence.

PSYCHOLOGICAL WARFARE 2: MISUSE OF AUTHORITY

In this poster a very famous singer, who may be an expert when it comes to music and vocalization, is endorsing a particular brand of soda, forgetting that she is not necessarily an expert on sodas.

PSYCHOLOGICAL WARFARE 2: MISUSE OF AUTHORITY Michael Jackson said heal the world, make it a better place. Then, we better should. How can the King of pop be wrong?

PSYCHOLOGICAL WARFARE 3: REPEATED ASSERTION

It is a fact that it is easier to accept a lie that one has heard many times before than to accept truth that one has never heard of.

The fallacy of repeated assertion takes advantage of this psychological fact. This fallacy repeats or multiplies essentially the same assertion with the aim that sooner or later people will accept it as true.

PSYCHOLOGICAL WARFARE 3: REPEATED ASSERTION

Adolf Hitler used this fallacy, when he practically littered Germany with his ideological banners and slogans.

PSYCHOLOGICAL WARFARE 3: REPEATED ASSERTION

The politician who clutters all the street corners and public walls with his and office long before election time, and with truck-loads of posters during the campaign season is guilty of this fallacy.

PSYCHOLOGICAL WARFARE 3: REPEATED ASSERTION More ingenious advertisers will compose catchy jingles or television scenes that will hopefully recur over and over again in heads of the audience, so that even though the advertisement is no longer in front of them they will still see it or hear it in their minds. But of course stating a lie a hundred times will certainly not make it true.

PSYCHOLOGICAL WARFARE 4: ATTITUDE FITTING

The person's attitude is his habitual way of other persons, objects, situations or ideas.

regarding

The fallacy of attitude fitting is done through inserting into the argument persons, objects, situations or ideas that are known in advance to be positively or negatively regarded by the intended audience.

PSYCHOLOGICAL WARFARE 4: ATTITUDE FITTING

As early as the later part of the ninth century, the Vikings discovered a huge island that is 85 % covered with ice.
Wanting to attract more settlers, they named it Greenland. At about the same time they also discovered another territory which was lush and fertile, wanting to keep the island for themselves they called it Iceland.

They knew very well that other peoples love the images of a green and fertile land, and were disgusted with the images of ice and frozen wasteland.
Their strategy of naming in order to attract and repel was an early example of attitude fitting.

PSYCHOLOGICAL WARFARE 4: ATTITUDE FITTING

PSYCHOLOGICAL WARFARE 4: ATTITUDE FITTING

Dark Skin?

PSYCHOLOGICAL WARFARE 4: ATTITUDE FITTING

Introducing:

PSYCHOLOGICAL WARFARE 4: ATTITUDE FITTING

Dark Skin? Introducing:

Filipinas love to have whiter skin. Pharmaceutical firms give them several whiteners to choose from.

PSYCHOLOGICAL WARFARE 4: ATTITUDE FITTING

And this is a gross example of attitude fitting:

PSYCHOLOGICAL WARFARE 4: ATTITUDE FITTING

A fair knightly fight

An unfair knightly fight

PSYCHOLOGICAL WARFARE 5: TOKENISM This fallacy happens when people are misled to see a token gestures as the real thing.

Whenever substantial action is needed but performing it would be too expensive, time and effort consuming, and even distracting to ones agenda, people often resort to tokenism.
This cartoon, for example, pokes fun on the creation of a department without the necessary funding. Hence, the department is practically drawn on a blank wl.

PSYCHOLOGICAL WARFARE 5: TOKENISM This fallacy happens when people are misled to see a token gestures as the real thing.

Whenever substantial action is needed but performing it would be too expensive, time and effort consuming, and even distracting to ones agenda, people often resort to tokenism. The real thing here is the department, while the token thing is the front door of the office.
By presenting the front door, without the real department, tokenism happens.

PSYCHOLOGICAL WARFARE 5: TOKENISM

On August 21, 1971, Plaza Miranda was bombed. Two grenades exploded in the middle of a political rally, which killed nine and wounded several persons. Among the injured were Senators Roxas, Salonga, Osmena, and Kalaw.
To appease the people, the incumbent president publicly ordered a thorough investigation, fully knowing that after the excitement would die down, the public clamor for justice will also wane. Of course, the criminals were never captured.

PSYCHOLOGICAL WARFARE 5: TOKENISM One of the favorite themes politicians love to print in their campaign posters is their token shot hugging a dirty street urchin here, or shaking hands with miserable slum dwellers there, as if to document their love for the poor and the downtrodden who after the elections they immediately neglect and abandon.

PSYCHOLOGICAL WARFARE 6: POISONING THE WELL When one poisons a well all the water that is drawn from it becomes poisoned and unpotable. The fallacy of poisoning the well works similarly. It happens when one discounts in advance the opponents evidence, proof, or counter argument, thereby preventing him from employing them.

When a biblical fundamentalist says theories are speculations, and speculations are always unreliable, now how do you prove your theory of evolution?, he is already discounting in advance the value of a theory and has prevented his opponent to argue in favor of it.

PSYCHOLOGICAL WARFARE 6: POISONING THE WELL

When your biology professor exhorts the class that only lazy students ask for examinations with open notes, then asks later on who wants an examination with an open notes he is using the same ploy.

PSYCHOLOGICAL WARFARE 7: RATIONALIZING Aesop, a 6th century Greek folk hero and teller of animal fables, had a story about a fox who felt so bad because he could not grab the hanging bunch of grapes. After some more tries the fox finally gave up and comforted himself, saying, Anyway, those grapes are sour. Who would like to eat sour grapes?

PSYCHOLOGICAL WARFARE 7: RATIONALIZING When ones ego is placed in an unpleasant situation one can spin untrue, but pleasant, reasons to settle things. Some teachers who were driven into their profession by circumstances would rationalize that it is their decision to be in their profession because molding the youth into better citizens is the noblest task a man could ever dream of.

If real reasons are not available, pleasant reasons can always be made. This is the fallacy of rationalization, it makes a clearly delicious bunch of grapes sour, and the obviously sour lemon sweet.

PSYCHOLOGICAL WARFARE 8: ARGUMENTUM AD BACULUM This fallacy still bears its classical Latin name. Baculum means a club or staff, and argumentum ad baculum roughly means an argument accompanied with a threatening blow of a club.

This fallacy happens when force or the threat of force is used instead of proper reason.

PSYCHOLOGICAL WARFARE 8: ARGUMENTUM AD BACULUM A professor who is bombarded with numerous questions regarding a controversial subject matter can easily control everything by screaming shut up, or else I'll flunk you all, but he commits this fallacy. The father who says you better study well, or Ill cut your allowance, is as guilty as the board room strategist who insists all executives should act in accordance with this proposal, otherwise the CEO will recall their appointments.

PSYCHOLOGICAL WARFARE 8: ARGUMENTUM AD BACULUM

PSYCHOLOGICAL WARFARE 9: ARGUMENTUM AD HOMINEM Argumentum ad hominem is another fallacy that still bears its classical Latin name. It simply means argument against the person.

Normally, arguments attack the opponents arguments and counter-arguments. The fallacy of argumentum ad hominem attacks the person of the opponent himself.
It wrongly assumes that if you discredit a person, his argument is also discredited. Yet, obviously it does not follow that if a person is a thief, his arguments are all wrong.

PSYCHOLOGICAL WARFARE 9: ARGUMENTUM AD HOMINEM When the prefect of students yells at a defendant in a disciplinary investigation, I don't believe your alibis, you are a cheat ever since he is arguing against the person of the student and not against the students reasons and evidences. However, in court adjudications argumentum ad hominem may be reasonably used. Lawyers may attack the testimony of witnesses by focusing on their character, credibility and expertise because witnesses and experts like doctors, and psychologists often present opinions which we cannot argue with directly. The next best way then is to evaluate their credibility, integrity, and judgment.

PSYCHOLOGICAL WARFARE 10: CONFIDENT MANNER When reasons, evidences, proofs and answers are unavailable, one can still fool others by using proper gestures, well calculated intonations and positive language.

The fallacy of confident manner is saying too little or nothing at all in so much impressive words and body language.
This fallacy is not only useful to politicians, who are forced to make stands and comments about so many things, but also to students who are taking oral examinations and graded recitations.