Why does propaganda work?
Emotion and Crowds 1/4 We are led by our emotions. An emotionally excited person can be tricked into making decisions that are not in his interests. Demagoguery is the art of inflaming emotions and then inducing decisions. Emotion is reason-lite. In his book Descartes’ Error, Antonio Damasio suggests that emotions evolved for quick-decision making in situations where there was no time for careful reasoning. [1] Emotions are not bad thinking, they are just thinking with limited information and minimal energy used. If the feeling of love makes a man protect his community, then he has made the best decision and saved the energy of re-writing Plato’s Republic. When quick or highly complex decisions are needed emotions serve an invaluable purpose. When the emotion-centers of the brain are damaged decision making is impaired. Damasio tells the story of Phineas Gage, who lost part of his left frontal lobe associated with emotion. Gage had the ability to think logically but was emotionally-deb
