---
title: You Know More Than Other People
url: https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/you-know-more-than-other-people-1939/
description: A text-only poster in black, red and blue tells the reader they are 'in a position of trust' and that careless words 'will help the enemy and cost us
section: Collection
---

1. [Home](https://propagandaarchive.org/)
2. [Collection](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/)
3. You Know More Than Other People

[![You Know More Than Other People, 1939 UK poster: A text-only poster in black, red and blue tells the reader they are 'in](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/you-know-more-than-other-people-1939.jpg)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/you-know-more-than-other-people-1939.jpg)

# You Know More Than Other People

A text-only poster in black, red and blue tells the reader they are 'in a position of trust' and that careless words 'will help the enemy and cost us lives'. The cost-in-lives warning is the fear appeal; the 'position of trust' flattery is the virtue-word framing.

## Propaganda techniques used in this poster

[Fear appeal](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/fear-appeal/) [Glittering generalities](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/glittering-generalities/)

## Text on the object

Original (English) · read from the image, not independently checked

```
YOU
KNOW MORE
THAN OTHER
PEOPLE
You are in a position
of trust. Don't let the
fighting forces down.
A few careless words may
give something away
that will help the enemy
and cost us lives.
Above all be careful what
you say to strangers
and in public.
Printed for H.M. Stationery Office by Greycaine Ltd., Watford and London. T 51-6502.
```

[← Ventilate Your Quarters](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/ventilate-your-quarters-games-1939/) [Your Courage, Your Cheerfulness, Your Resolution Will Bring Us Victory →](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/your-courage-your-cheerfulness-1939/)

## More propaganda examples that use the same techniques

- [Miniature of Pope Urban II at the Council of Clermont, Les Passages d'outremer (BnF Fr. 5594, fol. 19r)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/passages-doutremer-council-of-clermont-colombe-1474/) (France · 1474 · Testimonial, Fear appeal). Content note: Medieval religious imagery and a French text describing alleged killings and captivity of eastern Christians, as used to argue for the First Crusade; the text is shown as written.
- [Anacoana fut pendue sans raison (engraving in Le miroir de la cruelle et horrible tyrannie espagnole)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/anacoana-hanged-miroir-tyrannie-espagnole-1620/) (Dutch Republic · 1620 · Fear appeal, Name-calling). Content note: Engraving of a hanged, bare-breasted Taino woman, burning huts and people being killed by Spanish soldiers.
- [Der Warner (broadsheet lampoon on the Jesuits after Breitenfeld and Rain)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/der-warner-anti-jesuit-broadsheet-1632/) (Holy Roman Empire · 1632 · Scapegoating, Fear appeal)
- [Sans-Culottes, feeding Europe with the Bread of Liberty (James Gillray)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/sans-culottes-bread-of-liberty-gillray-1793/) (Kingdom of Great Britain · Jan 12, 1793 · Fear appeal, Name-calling)
- [Proclamation de Sonthonax en créole, Cap-Français (Proclamation of Commissioner Sonthonax in Creole)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/sonthonax-proclamation-creole-1793/) (France · Aug 29, 1793 · Fear appeal, Scapegoating). Content note: Colonial-era proclamation on slavery and emancipation in Saint-Domingue; speaks of slaves, whips and 'Nègues' in period terms.
- [Gazette of the United States, "The Jeffersoniad" no. VIII, 14 August 1800](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/gazette-us-jeffersoniad-1800/) (United States · Aug 14, 1800 · Name-calling, Fear appeal)
- [Tyrants Prostrate, Liberty Triumphant (pro-Polk cartoon on Dorr), 1844](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/tyrants-prostrate-liberty-triumphant-polk-1844/) (United States · 1844 · Name-calling, Fear appeal). Content note: Speech balloons contain anti-Catholic and nativist wording ('the ruins of Popery') in the mouths of the Whig figures, written by a Democratic cartoonist and shown unaltered.
- [Brolej Žemajčiaj! (Brothers Samogitians!): hand-painted broken-cross poster](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/brolej-zemajciaj-broken-cross-1862/) (Russian Empire · 1862 · Fear appeal, Transfer)