--- title: Glittering generalities:when a good word does the arguing url: https://propagandaarchive.org/learn/course/glittering-generalities/ description: Virtue words (freedom, security, the people, science) used as substitutes for a testable claim. section: Learn --- ![Illustration: a dossier collage of an intelligence briefing room with case files and behavioral-analysis notes on a chalkboard.](https://propagandaarchive.org/static/generated/hero-learn.jpg) [Learn](https://propagandaarchive.org/learn/) · [Course](https://propagandaarchive.org/learn/course/) · Lesson 6 # Glittering generalities:when a good word does the arguing **By the end:** Tell a virtue word standing in for a claim from a defined principle, and check whether the word could ever be shown to fail. About 7 minutes. 1. ## What it is — ### Definition — Virtue words (freedom, security, the people, science) used as substitutes for a testable claim. — ### The tell — Swap the virtue word for a concrete metric and the sentence collapses. — ### Not this — A defined principle applied to a named case. — A glittering generality attaches a cause, law, war, candidate or product to a word the audience already values, and then leaves that word undefined. — It was one of the seven devices named by the Institute for Propaganda Analysis in 1937. It is the mirror image of name-calling: a loaded good word instead of a loaded bad one. — The virtue word asks for approval without asking for evidence. — ![](https://propagandaarchive.org/static/generated/technique-cards/glittering-generalities.jpg) — Illustration, not an archive object 2. ## How it works — It has four parts: — The usual vehicles are slogans, operation names, bill titles, product labels and movement names. — Advisers on both sides of US politics have written openly about choosing such words: the Republican pollster Frank Luntz (2007) and the linguist George Lakoff, writing for progressives (2004). - **A charged word.** Freedom, peace, justice, the people, security, greatness, natural. - **A link** between that word and something specific and contestable. - **No definition or measure** that would show whether the thing delivers what the word promises. - **An implied opposite.** If the law is called the Patriot Act, opposing it can sound unpatriotic. 3. ## Why it works on people — Positive words produce a feeling before they produce an argument. — Read the research - **Feeling first.** Robert Zajonc (1980) argued that affective reactions can precede detailed thought. Paul Slovic and colleagues (2002) described the affect heuristic, in which the feeling attached to something serves as a shortcut for judging it. - **Low scrutiny.** In Petty and Cacioppo's model (1986), when people are not examining closely, attractive wording outweighs argument quality. - **Vagueness helps.** An undefined virtue word can unite people who would disagree over any specific version of it. Eric Eisenberg (1984) called this "strategic ambiguity". - **Cost of dissent.** Objecting to the label can be heard as objecting to the value. - [Affect heuristic](https://propagandaarchive.org/learn/affect-heuristic/) - [Hope appeals](https://propagandaarchive.org/learn/hope/) - [Nostalgia](https://propagandaarchive.org/learn/nostalgia/) - [Moral foundations](https://propagandaarchive.org/learn/moral-foundations/) 4. ## Same device, different stakes (1 of 3) — Three real objects from the archive. The technique is the same in each; the setting, the choice the audience had and what was at stake are not. — ![Rival presidential billboards, Istanbul, election day 2014](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/turkey-election-billboards-2014-640.jpg) — **Rival presidential billboards, Istanbul, election day 2014** · Aug 10, 2014 · Presidential campaigns of Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, Ekmeleddin İhsanoğlu and Selahattin Demirtaş · [Full record](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/turkey-election-billboards-2014/) — **Notice:** Three rival campaigns on one street on election day: 'Add strength to Turkey's strength', 'The pride of the Turkish nation' and 'Democratic change, peaceful Turkey'. Strength, pride and change words stand in for testable claims, on the government side and the opposition side alike. Voters were choosing between the three that day, in Turkey's first direct popular presidential vote. — [Read the full record and source](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/turkey-election-billboards-2014/) 5. ## Same device, different stakes (2 of 3) — !['Core Socialist Values' billboard, Puding County, Guizhou](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/core-socialist-values-billboard-2020-640.jpg) — **'Core Socialist Values' billboard, Puding County, Guizhou** · Oct 10, 2020 · Chinese Communist Party and government (installing body not stated), Puding County, Guizhou · [Full record](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/core-socialist-values-billboard-2020/) — **Notice:** A red billboard lists twelve Core Socialist Values (prosperity, democracy, freedom, equality, justice and others) as a public slogan. Unlike the Turkish street, no rival slogan stands beside it and no vote is being asked for; it is part of a nationwide campaign promoted by a 2013 Party directive. The record does not say who installed this stand. — [Read the full record and source](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/core-socialist-values-billboard-2020/) 6. ## Same device, different stakes (3 of 3) — ![Americans Will Always Fight for Liberty](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/americans-will-always-fight-for-liberty-1943-640.jpg) — **Americans Will Always Fight for Liberty** · 1943 · U.S. Office of War Information (OWI Poster No. 26; artist Bernard Perlin) · [Full record](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/americans-will-always-fight-for-liberty-1943/) — **Notice:** Ragged Continental soldiers of '1778' stand beside GIs of '1943' under the line 'Americans will always fight for liberty', with 'always' underlined. Liberty is offered as the aim of both wars without saying what either was about. It is a wartime government poster for the home public, and its printed text names no action to take. — [Read the full record and source](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/americans-will-always-fight-for-liberty-1943/) 7. ## Check yourself — A court applies the constitutional principle of equality to a named law, sets out what equality requires in that case and explains why the law fails it. Is 'equality' a glittering generality here? — Show the answer — **No. A defined principle applied to a named case is the look-alike. It becomes the technique only when invoked in place of an argument about a specific policy.** Right. The device begins when the word replaces the argument. Here the word is defined and tied to a named case that can be checked. 8. ## Spot it in the archive — !['A Grã-Bretanha, Defensora da Liberdade' (British poster in Portuguese)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/britain-defender-of-liberty-portuguese-1942-640.jpg) — 1942 · British Embassy Press and Information Services (Serviços de Imprensa e Informação da Embaixada Britânica); artist Jobson · [Full record](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/britain-defender-of-liberty-portuguese-1942/) — A British embassy poster in Portuguese, from 1942 to 1945, shows a painted view of RAF aircraft over the government quarter of Berlin, with bombs falling among the buildings. The headline reads 'Great Britain, Defender of Freedom'. Which technique is doing the work? — Show the answer — **Glittering generalities** The single word 'freedom' sits over a picture of a bombing raid and carries the whole argument. The poster does not say what defending freedom means here or how it could be measured. The test is the same for any sender: replace the word with a concrete claim and see what is left. 9. ## How to spot it, and what next — Read the full page: [Glittering generalities in the technique library](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/glittering-generalities/) · [All 100 examples in the collection](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#technique=glittering-generalities) — [Next lesson: Name-calling](https://propagandaarchive.org/learn/course/name-calling/) [Review from the start](https://propagandaarchive.org/learn/course/glittering-generalities/#step-1) - Replace the virtue word with a concrete measure (a number, a date, a named outcome). Does the sentence still say something you could check? - What would count as failure? If no result could show that the 'freedom' or 'greatness' was not delivered, the word is doing the work of an argument. - Is the word defined anywhere, such as the bill text, the platform or the stated aims, and does the content match the name? - Would people on the other side use the same word to support the opposite policy? If so, the word alone settles nothing. Lesson map 1. [1What it is](https://propagandaarchive.org/learn/course/glittering-generalities/#step-1) 2. [2How it works](https://propagandaarchive.org/learn/course/glittering-generalities/#step-2) 3. [3Why it works on people](https://propagandaarchive.org/learn/course/glittering-generalities/#step-3) 4. [4Example 1 of 3](https://propagandaarchive.org/learn/course/glittering-generalities/#step-4) 5. [5Example 2 of 3](https://propagandaarchive.org/learn/course/glittering-generalities/#step-5) 6. [6Example 3 of 3](https://propagandaarchive.org/learn/course/glittering-generalities/#step-6) 7. [7Check yourself](https://propagandaarchive.org/learn/course/glittering-generalities/#step-7) 8. [8Spot it in the archive](https://propagandaarchive.org/learn/course/glittering-generalities/#step-8) 9. [9How to spot it, and what next](https://propagandaarchive.org/learn/course/glittering-generalities/#step-9) Keep in mind **The tell.** Swap the virtue word for a concrete metric and the sentence collapses. **Not this.** A defined principle applied to a named case. ![](https://propagandaarchive.org/static/generated/technique-cards/glittering-generalities.jpg) Illustration, not an archive object Go further - [Full Glittering generalities page](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/glittering-generalities/) - [100 glittering generalities examples in the collection](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#technique=glittering-generalities) - [Hope appeals](https://propagandaarchive.org/learn/hope/) - [Nostalgia](https://propagandaarchive.org/learn/nostalgia/) - [Moral foundations](https://propagandaarchive.org/learn/moral-foundations/)