Propaganda is one of the oldest instruments of political power and one of the most psychologically misunderstood. It rarely works by simply “brainwashing” audiences; its influence runs through values, social identity, collective memory, and the narratives people use to make sense of events. This hub gathers peer-reviewed research from advances.in/psychology on how propaganda and state narratives operate, why people accept or resist them, and how psychological “inoculation” can build resistance — spanning wartime Russia, pro-Kremlin disinformation, contested national histories, and extremist recruitment.
What is propaganda?
Propaganda is communication deliberately designed to shape beliefs, attitudes, or behaviour in service of a political or ideological agenda — typically by appealing to emotion, group identity, values, and repetition rather than balanced evidence. Unlike ordinary persuasion, propaganda is systematic, one-sided, and advances the interests of its source. Crucially, its psychological effects depend less on mere exposure than on whether audiences internalise its framing — and research shows internalisation is far from automatic, shaped by people’s values, identities, and the histories they carry.
Featured research
How propaganda and state narratives work
- War, what is it good for? Propaganda, value-instantiating beliefs, war support and resistance in Russia
By Ponizovskiy, Weißflog, Osin & Grigoryan. A survey of 973 Russian citizens (August 2022) showing that support for and resistance to the war in Ukraine hinge on how people construe events through core values — not on blanket absorption of the official line — directly testing the assumption that propaganda works by internalisation. - Weaponising the past: An extended SIMCA model for how social identity and collective memory shape collective action responses to democratic backsliding
By Lavie-Driver & van der Linden. Extends the SIMCA model to explain why responses to democratic backsliding range from mass resistance to indifference or active support, showing how social identity and collective memory — the “weaponising” of history — drive collective action, drawing on Russia, Israel, and the United States. - Race, memory, and colorblindness: Critical history and deconstructing United States democracy
By Perez, Beam & Small. Draws on critical race theory, cultural psychology, and collective-memory research to show how colorblind ignorance of racist histories shapes perceptions of U.S. democracy as stable and infallible — illuminating how contested national narratives underpin susceptibility to authoritarian rhetoric.
Resisting propaganda: inoculation and disinformation defense
- Identity is key, but Inoculation helps — empowering Germans of Russian descent against pro-Kremlin disinformation
By Ziemer, Schmid, Betsch & Rothmund. A preregistered experiment (N = 597) testing psychological inoculation against pro-Kremlin disinformation in a diaspora community, finding that social identity is decisive but inoculation still adds protection — and that media exposure and identity moderate its effectiveness. - Inoculating against extremist persuasion techniques — a randomised controlled trial in post-conflict Iraq
By Saleh, Makki, Van der Linden & Roozenbeek. A field RCT (N = 191) in post-conflict regions of Iraq testing whether a short inoculation game, Radicalise, improves vulnerable individuals’ resistance to the manipulation techniques extremist groups use to recruit.
Key questions
What is propaganda?
Communication deliberately designed to shape beliefs, attitudes, or behaviour for a political or ideological goal, typically through emotion, identity, values, and repetition rather than balanced evidence.
Does propaganda actually change what people believe?
Not automatically. Regime support is often credited to “effective propaganda,” yet whether state framing is genuinely internalised is rarely tested. Research on 973 Russians during the war in Ukraine shows support and resistance turn on people’s core values, not blanket acceptance.
How are collective memory and history “weaponised” in propaganda?
Political actors mobilise contested national narratives and selective memories of the past to legitimise present agendas. Research on democratic backsliding shows social identity and collective memory shape whether people resist, ignore, or support such efforts; work on U.S. colorblind history shows how a forgotten racist past can make democracy feel infallible.
Can people be protected against propaganda and disinformation?
Yes — through psychological inoculation (prebunking): briefly exposing people to weakened forms of manipulation so they recognise and resist it later. Randomised trials show inoculation builds resistance to disinformation and extremist persuasion, though social identity strongly shapes how well it works.
How is propaganda different from misinformation and persuasion?
Persuasion seeks to convince; misinformation is false or misleading content (not always intentional); propaganda is the deliberate, organised use of either — emotionally charged and identity-targeted — to serve a political goal.
Related research hubs
The Psychology of Misinformation · Democratic Backsliding