The effects of propaganda on recall, recognition and behaviour. I. The relationship between the different measures of propaganda effectiveness.

Abstract

Two experiments are described in which effects of propaganda were assessed by standard forms of recall and recognition tests as well as by any change in overt behaviour following propaganda. first, a field experiment, using road‐safety propaganda presented in a Children's Cinema Club, showed that there was no positive relationship between effects of propaganda as shown by tests of recall or recognition on one hand and behaviour on roads on other. A second experiment was conducted in laboratory where an attempt was made to influence a subject's choice of fast or slow speed on a mechanical task by means of incidental propaganda. ‘effect’ of propaganda varied according to whether its influence was assessed by its attention value, its intelligibility, by how much could be described or recognized, or by its capacity to influence behaviour. Some subjects had only attended to individual items of display and, although they were able to recall or recognize these, they were not able to understand implication of propaganda and were not influenced by it. Others understood and recalled propaganda but were not influenced by it. Finally, there were those subjects who understood propaganda and were influenced by it but who could not remember it. Thus it seems that information which has been learned from propaganda can become apparent in two distinct forms: (a) in recall or recognition, and (6) in subsequent behaviour. reasons why these different effects were more marked in some subjects than in others will be examined in second part of this paper.