I find it very difficult to write about this topic, because most people seem unwilling to see my point of view. For most people there is only the dichotomy “rational” versus “irrational” — “differently rational” is not a category they feel comfortable with. [1]
It is evident that the successful propagandist must understand the true motives and not be content to accept the reasons which men give for what they do.
Edward Bernays, “Propaganda”, p. 52
Although the word “rationalisation” exists, and also the word “rationality” and its plural form are both well-known and hardly incomprehensible, the notion of different kinds or modes of rationality still simply does not compute, make sense or anything like that.
In contrast, there are many people who maintain that most humans are irrational when it comes to decision-making.
Yet the advertising industry — and especially the quasi-scientific approach that Edward Bernays introduced it to — has become very adept at telling stories that increasingly make consumers buy it (whatever “it” is). This is based on insights that are downright predictable — decisions are not made irrationally, they are simply differently rational.
Note that while consumer behavior is obviously very well researched, virtually none of the insights gained are widely published. Competitive companies have little or no interest in sharing their own trade secrets with their own competitors.
I don’t know much about Edward Bernays, and I also never studied “public relations”. Yet I did learn about him through my work (in a field called “information science”) — and I am fascinated by his “story”. A significant part of this story is beyond the shadow of a doubt his close relationship to his “double” [1] uncle (Sigmund Freud). And I find it particularly noteworthy to point out that he and his double uncle did not develop their double relationship into a professional relationship to “treat” the psychological issues that they observed in the context of “mass psychology”; instead, they did develop a professional relationship to exploit the psychological issues they observed in the context of “mass psychology” (for mutual financial gain).
In the century since they did so, the scientific investigation of propaganda techniques and technology has been expanded greatly, and it has gained momentum precisely because it was thereby discovered that this form of exploitation is an extremely lucrative business practice. So far, we are apparently nowhere near “peak propaganda” yet.
Socio Business blog 