KYIV. UkraineGate . 23 . August .2022 l Society .
The principle of Russian propaganda is to simultaneously show the brotherhood of the peoples of Russia and Ukraine, and to make allegations about the cruelty of Ukrainians against Russian-speaking people. Thus, propaganda acts on the goal of justifying the crimes of the Russian army and receiving support for such actions among Russians.
Citation
“People have a need to defend their principles and beliefs and do it in a way where we would not look like murderers and tyrants for ourselves. This is our social nature. Any of our actions or events that we associate with ourselves, we need to justify, because we want to be on the side of good. That’s propaganda in the context of the information that Rusnya is now creating, and enables people to find an explanation for the cruel acts on the part of Russia, because it is presented as good,” the neuroscientist said.
Details
Propaganda is a form or system of communication whose purpose is to disseminate certain worldviews, statements or facts in a society or group of people. However, the key is that propaganda influences the opinion of society in favor of a particular cause. In addition, this is one informative message, for example, on Facebook. This is a whole system aimed at ensuring that people from different sources receive information in an easy-to-understand form and that would confirm their position.
As, for example, with vaccination. If a person’s initial position is against vaccination, then in propaganda he easily finds confirmation by analysts, “facts” that further strengthen his opinion.
“As for the war. They have the attitude that we are fraternal peoples and peoples from one country. The information messages that they receive, on the one hand, reinforce the attitude that we are fraternal peoples, and on the other hand, show that now Ukrainians have encroached on friendship, interaction and, through the use of the Russian language, have begun to commit physical violence. That is, at the same time they give a statement that reinforces the prejudice that has been created over the years, about a single state and fraternal peoples, and make allegations of cruelty on the part of Ukrainians. And this means that it is possible to commit crimes against Ukrainians and justify them,” the expert notes.
In addition, emotional coloring of events is also important in propaganda. Such information is better captured in memory and has a much stronger effect on consciousness.
“Any emotionally colored story in people evokes feelings. The main principle of propaganda is to evoke a strong emotion. When propagandists, through emotional messages, cause empathy among the population, for example, to people who allegedly suffer from bullying for using the Russian language, they thus explain that they have to take certain measures to save others,” the neuroscientist says.
In addition, emotionally colored information is always better remembered and gets into long-term memory. Therefore, Russians perceive strong emotional messages easily and quickly. And even if the information is later refuted, the brain no longer reacts. After all, usually in propaganda, the refutation of information does not constitute an emotional burden. There was a cognitive reaction after the first message, and it could not be canceled.
Source: Ukrgate