War of The Worlds - Subliminal Mass Influence

On the night before Halloween, Oct. 30, 1938, Orson Welles and the Mercury Theater on the Air, put on a radio adaptation of the H.G. Wells science fiction novel, The War of the Worlds.

Presented as a news bulletin the broadcast subliminally influenced the masses and people actually believed that a martian invasion was happening.

Even though Welles interrupted with repeated explanations that this was only a radio play, the outcome was heightened panic and uncontrollable emotion. People listening in the United States, mostly in the Northeast, left their homes, armed themselves, hid in basements, and essentially panicked.

The New York Times and other newspapers reported the aftermath the next day. Americans actually believed they were under attack.

Dorothy Thompson later wrote in the New York Tribune. “They have proved that a few effective voices, accompanied by sound effects, can convince masses of people of a totally unreasonable, completely fantastic proposition as to create a nation-wide panic. They have demonstrated more potently than any argument, demonstrated beyond a question of a doubt, the appalling dangers and enormous effectiveness of popular and theatrical demagoguery.”

What made this radio show so effective in subliminally persuading the masses? It created beliefs in the audience. We have learned that humans often create beliefs based on evidence. In other instances, the mere power of suggestion is enough. So when you begin to subliminally influence the masses you --

• Build on existing beliefs and bridge those beliefs to the new idea

• Create a highly charged environment where the lesson will be experienced with full emotional impact so that it is instantly imprinted as being real

• Reduce the message to the smallest, hardest hitting component possible and deliver it with great intensity

• Repeat the message regularly and in multiple formats so that it becomes well accepted

• Leverage social proof so that new believers become true believers

• Where possible give the group both overt and covert ways of recognizing themselves

Needless to say there are lessons to learn from Welles’ infamous stunt.

“What is the difference between unethical and ethical advertising?” asked anthropologist Vilhjalmur Stefansson.

“Unethical advertising,” he continued, “uses falsehoods to deceive the public; ethical advertising uses truth to deceive the public.”

This is a very dangerous view from the perspective of the persuader but it is a good reminder that our job is not to deceive but to lead people to their own most logical conclusion which happens to be one you share.