Adeola Odofin

Instances of Pavlovian Conditioning in Government Propaganda

Started Apr. 2, 2025

Abstract or project description

Research question: How, if at all, are the mechanisms of traditional Pavlovian conditioning leveraged in historical examples of government propaganda? How do the effects of these mechanisms in propaganda compare to the effects of Pavlov’s experiments?

Approach: To begin with, I will do an in-depth study of Pavlov’s experiment by way of the paper Pavlov himself wrote on his classical conditioning experiments, as well as analyses done by other people. In doing this, I will be able to get a holistic understanding of the elements of classical conditioning, and also what the response to a conditioned stimulus entails. With this understanding, I will pick a historical instance of governmental propaganda, identify instances of the use of mechanisms similar to those used by Ivan Pavlov, and describe their effects in comparison to those of Pavlov’s experiment.