{"id":10470,"date":"2026-06-19T16:12:39","date_gmt":"2026-06-19T14:12:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/advances.in\/psychology\/?post_type=knowledge_hub&p=10470"},"modified":"2026-08-20T08:23:31","modified_gmt":"2026-08-20T06:23:31","slug":"psychology-of-propaganda","status":"publish","type":"knowledge_hub","link":"https:\/\/advances.in\/psychology\/10.56296\/knowledge-hub\/psychology-of-propaganda\/","title":{"rendered":"The Psychology of Propaganda"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Propaganda is one of the oldest instruments of political power and one of the most psychologically misunderstood. It rarely works by simply \u201cbrainwashing\u201d audiences; its influence runs through values, social identity, collective memory, and the narratives people use to make sense of events<\/strong>. This hub gathers peer-reviewed research from advances.in\/psychology<\/em> on how propaganda and state narratives operate, why people accept or resist them, and how psychological \u201cinoculation\u201d can build resistance \u2014 spanning wartime Russia, pro-Kremlin disinformation, contested national histories, and extremist recruitment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What is propaganda?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Propaganda is communication deliberately designed to shape beliefs, attitudes, or behaviour in service of a political or ideological agenda \u2014 typically by appealing to emotion, group identity, values, and repetition rather than balanced evidence.<\/strong> 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<\/em> its framing \u2014 and research shows internalisation is far from automatic, shaped by people\u2019s values, identities, and the histories they carry.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Featured research<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

How propaganda and state narratives work<\/h3>\n\n\n\n