n which ways is classical conditioning used by politicians?advertisers?moviemakers?
What an interesting question !, lets remind ourselves what classical conditioning is.
In the 1880 a Russian named Ivan Pavlov under took a series of experiments in which he trained dogs to respond to a bell.
This 'Pavilion response' is based an a stimulations in this case the bell and a period of 'conditioning' in this case ringing the bell when food is given.
The dog believed that every time the bell rang they were going to get food and a such they began to salivate,( dribble ).
So thinking about that, lets consider what stimuli’s are used to trigger a reaction.
Drive down the road and see a McDonalds sign the big yellow M is used in the same way Pavlov used the bell see the sign think of food!
Film makers have lots of differing techniques to build emotional tension and a Pavlovian response , perhaps the best example is the background music in the film Jaws.
Right at the beginning of the move music is used to connect a shark attack on a person.
As the film progresses every time the music is played we know someone is going to get eaten, and we have a physical response , which could be a raised heart beat or shallower breathing.
As for politicians, well as the Nazi Joseph Goebbels pointed out.
“If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it. If you repeat a lie long enough, it becomes truth”
A recent example of Pavlovian conditioning in politics was the the lie that Saddam Hussain had weapons of mass destruction ( WMD)
Politicians and the media used images of dead civilians who had apparently been gassed to condition the public in to feeling angry and frightened.
Thus when the politicians decided to go to war the public (or a least most of them agreed)