Download Recognizing Bias and Persuasive Techniques

Recognizing Bias and
Persuasive Techniques
Have you ever tried to get someone
to do something for you???
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What was the situation?
How did you try to get what you wanted?
How did it work out for you? Did you get what
you wanted?
Guess what?
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You were trying to be persuasive by trying to get
people to do what you want them to.
Opinions and emotions can be considered tools
What is bias, and why should I know
about it?
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When your personal opinion is used in a
commercial, ad, news story, or other area of the
media
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When an opinion is used, the facts can be
overlooked.
Propaganda Techniques:
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Methods that people use to make what they say
or write more convincing
Can be used on purpose to appeal to emotion
Can also be called “fallacies” or flaws in logic
Kinds of propaganda
techniques/fallacies:
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Bandwagon:
Everyone else is
doing it, so I should
too.
Kinds of propaganda
techniques/fallacies:
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Testimonial: Uses a
famous person to try
and influence you to
do or buy something.
Review: Testimonial or Bandwagon?
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The pop singer Nelly declared, “I support the
workers!”
Testimonial
Children across the nation are helping the
homeless.
Bandwagon
Kinds of propaganda
techniques/fallacies:
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Loaded Words: Using emotionally charged
words (tone words) to produce strong positive
or negative feelings.
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EXAMPLE: Cheaters are lowdown and
dishonest people.
Kinds of propaganda
techniques/fallacies:
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Broad Generalization: Making a broad statement
that something is true about all members of a
group.
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EXAMPLE: “Everyone says that learning
French is for losers.”
Review: False Analogy and Appeal to
Tradition
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Why would you support a law that would hurt
poor, hardworking moms and dads that make
America strong?
Loaded Words
Ellen is a poor student because she got a bad
grade on her paper.
Broad Generalization
Kinds of propaganda
techniques/fallacies:
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Novelty: The mistaken assumption that an idea
is good just because it is new.
Kinds of propaganda
techniques/fallacies:
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False precision: The attempt to support an idea
with math that may be tough to prove.
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EXAMPLE: “Our product is 25% better than
the national leading brand.”
Review: Novelty and False Precision:
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Try Cheerios today; you will love the new and
improved taste!
Novelty
Kids like the taste of chocolate crunchies 30%
more over the leading brand.
False precision