The Origins of Human Amenability to Propaganda

Abstract

The author examines the main psychological characteristics of a person that have made him susceptible to the influence of other people, including propaganda. The subject of the study is these features of the human psyche. There are several main blocks of these psychological features: from imitation of parents and interaction in a team, where people are affected by mechanisms of deception and self-deception in order to convince others more effectively and rate themselves higher, to interaction within the social hierarchy, it is considered which strategies are more effective, and how this influences on the mechanisms of deception and self-deception. Using mathematical modeling methods, game theory and algorithms written in the python programming language, the author analyzes the most effective mechanisms of interaction among people in the social hierarchy, which contributed to the development of culture and deception, making a person more tricky. It is noted that the growth of what is commonly called "civility" is not so much a "herd" or "weakness", as it is sometimes estimated (the most famous example of such an assessment is Friedrich Nietzsche), as a trick, due to the fact that it is a more effective method of promotion in the social hierarchy and the struggle for power.