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Illustration: a Cold War intelligence-briefing collage with the Kremlin, Eastern Bloc architecture and a reconnaissance map of Europe.

Techniques

Propaganda techniques: the types and how they work

47 named techniques in four families, from the 1937 Institute for Propaganda Analysis devices to the methods of automated influence campaigns. Each page gives a definition, the tell to look for, and what it is not.

See which techniques travel together Download the print edition (PDF)

Illustration, not an archive object

Classical

Institute for Propaganda Analysis (1937) seven devices and close descendants. Work on emotion, identity, and selective evidence.

Illustration: a torn adhesive label with jagged crimson edges slapped onto a plain gray silhouette shape.

Name-callingAttach a loaded label so the audience rejects the target without checking the claim.951 objects · 25 briefs

Illustration: an ornate empty seal glowing with sparkling rays around a blank redacted center.

Glittering generalitiesVirtue words (freedom, security, the people, science) used as substitutes for a testable claim.1711 objects · 20 briefs

Illustration: a strong ornate seal pressing its emblem through paper onto a plain blank seal beneath it.

TransferBorrow prestige or stigma from a respected or hated symbol and paste it onto the message.2570 objects · 63 briefs

Illustration: a speech-bubble shape stamped with an official seal of approval, resting on a blank redacted page.

TestimonialA named person or institution vouches; the vouch is meant to end checking.675 objects · 12 briefs

Illustration: a rolled-up sleeve and a plain work glove on a wooden table, set against blurred ornate institutional seals.

Plain folksThe speaker performs ordinary-person identity to make the message feel homegrown.856 objects · 26 briefs

Illustration: a leaning stack of playing-card-like redacted panels, most face-down, with only a favorable few turned face-up on top.

Card stackingSelect, omit, or order facts so the remaining pile can only be read one way.1387 objects · 135 briefs

Illustration: a crowd of identical silhouette arrows all pivoting to point the same direction, one holdout arrow left facing the other way.

BandwagonTreat popularity, momentum, or 'everyone knows' as proof.554 objects · 3 briefs

Illustration: a stark alarm bell under a harsh spotlight, casting a long jagged shadow across a redacted page.

Fear appealImminent harm is staged so the audience accepts the offered protection without comparing base rates or alternatives.1311 objects · 25 briefs

Illustration: a single dark silhouette figure singled out by a spotlight while a crowd of identical pale silhouettes recedes into shadow.

ScapegoatingPark blame for a complex harm on a bounded out-group so the in-group stays clean.162 objects · 11 briefs

Illustration: a row of silhouettes whose heads turn into blank boxes one by one, the last three crossed out in red under a red label bar.

DehumanizationPortray a group as vermin, disease, beasts or objects so harm against them stops feeling like harm against people.11 objects

Illustration: a speech bubble full of text bars with a few words boxed in red and spiked, and listeners standing beside it.

Loaded languageChoose words for their emotional charge rather than their descriptive content, so the wording delivers the verdict.13 objects

Illustration: a hand pulling strings attached to a large red heart, with a small unused scale of reasoning to one side and a crowd on the other.

Appeal to emotionUse pity, pride, anger, guilt or hope to win assent that the evidence alone would not.35 objects

Illustration: a loudspeaker and rows of identical posters that darken toward the right, the last column in red.

Repetition and the illusory truth effectRepeat a claim until familiarity is mistaken for truth.13 objects DemonizationCast an enemy as evil, satanic or morally monstrous, so that talking to it seems like collusion and defeating it seems like a duty.9 objects

Rhetorical

Argument-form tricks that survive even when the speaker is named.

Illustration: two redacted documents pointing accusing arrows at each other, each deflecting attention from itself onto the other.

WhataboutismAnswer an accusation with a different accusation so the original claim is never tried.8 objects · 3 briefs

Illustration: a bold abstract letterform on a card, stretched and pulled out of shape by two opposing arrows.

Semantic hijackingCapture a high-prestige or high-stigma word and stretch it until it covers the speaker's preferred set.27 objects · 27 briefs

Illustration: a schematic fortress diagram with a small fortified tower beside a much larger, loosely defended courtyard.

Motte and baileyAdvance a bold claim; when pressed, retreat to a modest claim; then reoccupy the bold one.

Illustration: a balance scale holding two identical stacks of redacted paper, one pan quietly pressed down by a hidden thumb.

BothsidesismForce symmetry between unequal evidence piles so the audience treats the question as a tie.4 objects · 2 briefs

Illustration: a label peeling off a plain jar to reveal a starkly different label underneath.

Euphemism / doublespeakReplace a concrete harm or act with a sanitizing or inflating phrase so evaluation never meets the thing.32 objects · 13 briefs

Illustration: two abstract silhouette outlines merging into a single fused contour.

Identity fusionCollapse checking the claim into betraying the tribe, so method-critique feels like treason.257 objects · 9 briefs

Illustration: a lone figure beside a gas lamp, hand to head, looking at a group photograph with one figure painted out and only a red dashed outline left.

GaslightingDeny or rewrite what the audience saw, heard or lived through, so they come to distrust their own perception and memory and defer to the speaker's account.6 objects

Illustration: a page of argument left untouched while red arrows all point at the speaker at the podium.

Ad hominemAttack the character, motives or circumstances of the person making a claim in place of the claim itself.7 objects

Illustration: a whistle sending fading sound rings toward a crowd, where only a few red figures turn their heads to the sound.

Dog whistleA phrase that reads as innocuous to a general audience but carries a second, targeted meaning to an in-group.

Illustration: a trail of footprints toward a closed door, with a big red fish dragged across the path to pull it off course.

Red herringIntroduce an attractive side topic so attention leaves the question that was actually asked.2 objects

Illustration: a figure swinging a red bat at a scarecrow while the real opponent stands faded and untouched in the background.

Straw manRestate an opponent's position in a weaker or more extreme form, then refute the restatement.7 objects

Illustration: a road forking into exactly two at a signpost, with a third way straight ahead hidden behind hedges and shown as a red dashed line.

False dilemmaPresent two options as the only ones, so rejecting one forces acceptance of the other.16 objects Slippery slopeClaim that one modest step will set off a chain of further steps ending in catastrophe, without showing that each link in the chain is likely.3 objects Guilt by associationDiscredit a person, group or idea by linking it to something already hated or feared, so the audience judges the link and not the evidence.12 objects Thought-terminating clichéA short, familiar, definitive-sounding phrase offered in place of an answer, so that a question or objection ends instead of being examined.4 objects

Operational

Campaign architecture: how a message is staged, sourced, or made to look like consensus.

Illustration: a single small document nearly buried under a toppling stack of identical blank redacted papers.

Flooding the zoneSaturate the available attention so a preferred frame, or chaos itself, crowds out slower checking.2 objects · 25 briefs

Illustration: a murky ink-stained document passing through a filter and emerging clean into a neat labeled folder.

Narrative launderingPass a state or factional message through a more legitimate-looking surface so origin is hard to see.9 objects · 98 briefs

Illustration: dozens of identical rubber stamps arranged in a ring, each pressing the same checkmark onto blank paper.

Manufactured consensusCreate the appearance that independent voices independently arrived at the same conclusion.14 objects · 86 briefs

Illustration: a dark-to-light gradient bar with a small aperture frame sliding steadily along it.

Overton window shiftingMove a previously unsayable position into the window of the discussable by repetition, extremes, or institutional blessing.12 briefs

Illustration: a heavy vault door cracked open just enough to light a few loose papers, while a larger stack stays locked in shadow.

Limited hangoutRelease a partial, survivable truth to block a larger one.3 objects · 2 briefs

Illustration: an oversized magnifying glass over a blank redacted page, revealing only a tiny sliver of fine print in one corner.

Disclosure theaterA technically present disclosure that does not travel with the content the audience actually sees.1 object · 56 briefs

Illustration: a pointed accusing finger reflected in a cracked mirror, the accusation aimed back at its own source.

Accusation in a mirrorAccuse the target of the method or crime you are preparing or running, so their warning sounds like a confession.7 objects · 15 briefs

Illustration: a giant framed portrait with red sunburst rays over a crowd of silhouettes all facing it.

Cult of personalityState or movement apparatus builds a leader into an infallible, omnipresent figure, so loyalty to the person stands in for judgment of policy.21 objects

Illustration: a striped banner with one corner peeled back to show a red insignia, a figure holding a torch behind it and onlookers in front.

False flagStage or attribute an act so it appears to come from someone else, usually to justify a response against them.3 objects

Illustration: a speaker on a platform with a red megaphone cone sweeping over a crowd with raised arms.

DemagogueryPolitical leadership that wins support by turning a public's fears and resentments against an out-group or the leader's critics, and casts policy questions as loyalty tests.6 objects

Illustration: a huge red billboard dwarfing a small figure who holds a modest dashed-outline paper.

Big lieA falsehood so large that audiences assume no one would dare invent it, sustained by repetition and by attacking anyone who disputes it.6 objects Atrocity propagandaUse reports of massacre, torture, rape or mutilation, real, exaggerated or invented, to mobilise a public against a named enemy.11 objects

Computational

Volume, automation, synthetic production, or poisoning of ranking and retrieval systems.

Illustration: several fire hoses spraying overlapping streams of illegible ink and text across a page.

FirehosingHigh-volume, high-velocity, multi-channel output that does not care about internal consistency; the goal is exhaustion, not persuasion of one claim.1 object · 11 briefs

Illustration: plastic astroturf blades pushing up through cracked concrete, with identical rubber stamps scattered among the blades.

AstroturfingFake or rented grassroots: personas, pages, or crowds that are not what they claim.4 objects · 83 briefs

Illustration: a face-shaped void built from a pixel wireframe mesh, dissolving into digital static at the edges.

Synthetic mediaMachine-made or machine-rewritten content presented as human witness, journalism, or research.3 objects · 103 briefs

Illustration: a funnel pouring dark ink into a stylized database block, with corrupted glitch-text bleeding out the other side.

Corpus poisoningSeed search indices, encyclopedias, or model-facing text so downstream systems repeat the frame as if it were independent research.9 briefs

Illustration: a fishing hook baited with a glowing crimson flare, dangling above a sea of grasping abstract hands.

Outrage baitCraft the item so the profitable reaction is fury, which then does the distribution.13 objects · 14 briefs

Illustration: a ticking clock face whose source-label corner slowly fades to blank while its hands keep moving.

Sleeper effectA discounted source is forgotten faster than the claim, so the claim later feels ownerless and true.1 object · 2 briefs