Pentagon Employing Top Scientists to Improve US Propaganda Machine
(ANTIMEDIA)
Throughout human history, governments have been interested in
“mastering the human domain”—in fully understanding how to control the
minds of their populations. In 2015, DARPA’s “Narrative Networks” ( or N2) program is in full swing.
The project is intended to analyze how “narratives” play into human
psychology, delving into the way these constructs affect the mind. A
narrative is a way of phrasing something, a choice of words, for
example, that is likely a biased strategy to frame information.
“Narratives exert a powerful influence on human thoughts, emotions
and behavior and can be particularly important in security contexts,” DARPA researchers said in a paper published in the Journal of Neuroscience Methods.
They discussed “…conflict resolution and counterterrorism
scenarios [and] detecting the neural response underlying empathy induced
by stories is of critical importance.”
Mastery of “narratives” could potentially be used to manipulate the
perception of a population using platforms of communication like
television to subtly and potently make a person think a certain way.
Many people know this tactic by a more familiar term: propaganda.
“Governments often use stories to present information, so understanding how we comprehend them is important,” said co-author Eric Schumacher, an associate professor of psychology at the Georgia Institute of Technology.
