The Engineering of Consent (Bernays)

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The Engineering of Consent is the title of an essay by Edward Bernays that appeared in 1947, as well as the title of an anthology of essays by his colleagues, which he published in 1955 with his own contribution and a foreword.

Overview

Bernays describes the goal of "design approval" ( engineering consent ) as "engineering approach - that is, of acts that exclusively on thorough knowledge of the facts, scientific principles and proven practices are based, to cause people to support ideas and programs. "

"Professionally, [public relations] activities are planned and executed by trained practitioners in accordance with scientific principles, based on the findings of social scientists . Their dispassionate approach and methods may be likened to those of the engineering professions which stem from the physical sciences. "

The threat to democracy from this socio-technical control of public opinion has often been criticized because of its assumed proximity to totalitarian forms of rule:

Consent that is technically produced in this way is difficult to distinguish from forms of consent that serve to support totalitarian forms of rule. Where the manipulated voter becomes the normal voter, one can no longer say that the government is based on his consent in any traditional sense of the word.

The result of some analyzes of buying behavior is that psychologists have already made the choice for the consumer before they buy a particular product. Marketing often uses symbols and guiding themes that unconsciously influence buying behavior.

essay

The essay of the same name first appeared in the Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science . The author presents the following observations:

  • The United States has become like a small room in which a small sound is amplified a thousand fold.
  • The political leadership is more physically distant than it used to be, but the media has created a much greater familiarity. Literacy has also contributed to the greater influence of the media.
  • With the help of experts, political leaders are able to generate approval.
  • Freedom of the press, freedom of assembly and the right to petition make it possible to obtain consent.
  • Under no circumstances should the consensus technique undermine or replace the education system. It complements the education system.
  • The main task of the PR consultant's profession is the factual and realistic analysis of the client's situation vis-à-vis the public, advice on necessary corrections in attitudes and access to the public.
  • The trust (good will) can only be maintained in the long term if the actions guarantee this trust. The consultant has a professional ethical obligation to advise the customer on this and will not accept any socially harmful orders.
  • As in engineering, a feasibility study and budgeting must be done before action is taken
  • The social technician must be endowed with the power of factual knowledge, truth and evidence before coming into the public eye.
  • Contact with interest groups is crucial. Bernays recommends the World Almanac as a source of information.
  • The public's attitudes, ideas, assumptions or prejudices result from determinable influencing factors. These are to be worked out.
  • The democratic society is a loose aggregate of individual groups. In order to influence the public, the consensus technician must influence the group leaders and opinion leaders.
  • Research provides the data and plans to drive opinions.
  • The main themes must correspond to the motives of the public. These can be conscious or unconscious. Motives arise from the activation of conscious and unconscious emotional pressure that arises from needs.
  • Other activities need to be organized and coordinated: opinion polls, sponsors, advertising professionals, film experts, language experts, experts on women's issues.
  • Planning of all phases, especially the timing, is crucial for the efficiency of the measures.

Book publication

In 1955 the University of Oklahoma Press published Bernays' book The Engineering of Consent . Bernays wrote only the first chapter "The Theory and Practice of Public Relations: A Resumé" (Theory and Practice of Public Relations: A Resume). The seven other chapters came from his collaborators. "Objectives" by Howard Walden Cutler, "Research" by Sherwood Dodge, "Strategy" by Nicholas Saturday, "Themes and Symbols" by his wife Doris Fleischman and HW Cutler, "Organization for public relations" by John Price Jones, "Planning" by Benjamin Fine and "The tactics of public relations" by A. Robert Ginsburgh.

The strategy chapter, the longest chapter of the book, begins with sociological and psychological observations on motivational issues from the works of Karl Menninger and Vilfredo Pareto . Saturday presents various strategies in exemplary case studies. Aspects of time management are dealt with, as well as various techniques of opinion management.

Reviews

A. Edgar Schuler called the book a convenient and compact introduction. He particularly highlighted Saturday's chapters.

M. Weisglas wrote in the International Communication Gazette that Bernays and the co-authors had misled their readers with false hopes about public relations.

Torches of Freedom

In a practical example from his introductory chapter, Bernays shows how George Washington Hill, president of the American Tobacco Company , commissioned Edward Bernays in 1928 to organize a campaign to encourage women to smoke in public. The symbolic naming of the cigarettes as "torches of freedom" played a role in changing the image of smoking.

The basic idea of ​​the technical production of consent goes back to Sigmund Freud's idea that people are irrational beings who are primarily determined by unconscious wishes. If you recognize these hidden desires, you can use them to your own advantage.

effect

Ernest Dichter presented how a stable society could be formed through a "strategy of needs". A common consumer identity is created, similar to cultural commodification . Culture has no inherited identity, meaning or history of its own, but is only produced through consumer behavior and social behavior patterns of the time.

To understand a "stable citizen" one needs to know that quite often modern man tries to reduce his frustration by spending his money to reward himself. The modern human being is internally ready to realize himself, to realize his self-image by buying products that confirm this self-image.

See also

Remarks

  1. ↑ Bernays 1955 p. 4
  2. ↑ John C. Livingston, Robert G. Thompson (1966): The Consent of the Governed , 2nd edition, p. 11, Verlag Collier Macmillan
  3. ^ A. Edgar Schuler (1956) Review: The Engineering of Consent, Rural Sociology 21 (1): 80, link from Cornell University Core Historical Literature of Agriculture
  4. ^ M. Weisglas (1956) "Review: Engineering of Consent", International Communication Gazette 2:59
  5. ↑ Lynn T. Tanoue (2000) "Cigarette Smoking and Women's Respiratory Health", Clinics in Chest Medicine 21 (1): 47-65 doi : 10.1016 / S0272-5231 (05) 70007-1
  6. ↑ "To understand a stable citizen, you have to know that modern man quite often tries to work off his frustrations by spending on self-sought gratification. Modern man is internally ready to fulfill his self-image, by purchasing products which compliment it. "

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