How Is Psychology Important to Public Relations?
By Sarah Anderson
How do we communicate? What is the best way to communicate to increase understanding? Public relations requires developing a cohesive communication strategy that is not only reactive, but proactive. So how do public relations practitioners figure out how people will react to situations, and how do they decide what is the best way to deal with situations?
Edward Bernays, PR and Psychology
Edward Bernays, a pioneer in public relations, was also the nephew of Sigmund Freud. His relationship with his uncle had a great effect on how Bernays felt public relations should operate. Bernays believed that in order to be successful, the “PR man not only needs to be smart and intuitive, he needs to understand psychology, sociology.” Bernays felt that if you understood how and why people did things, you could then change their behaviour. Integral to this philosophy was the idea that the problem be approached in a scientific manner, a scientific approach being
‘basic to any understanding of a world as complex as the one we live in.
‘ One of the most famous examples of his use of a scientific approach with psychology was also one of his most notorious.
Bernays, Lucky Strike Cigarettes and Smoking Women
In the early 1900s it was socially unacceptable for women to smoke in public. Sam Hill, owner of American Tobacco Corporation and Lucky Strike Cigarettes saw half his potential market (and profits) slipping away. The question was, how do you get women to smoke? But the question that first needed to be answered was, why don’t women smoke now? To answer that question, Bernays convinced Hill to pay for a prominent psychoanalyst to be consulted. The answer they received was that women saw cigarettes as phallic — a symbol of male oppression. Armed with this knowledge, Bernays arranged for debutantes at the Easter Parade in New York City, at a given signal, to light up their ‘torches of freedom’ in defiance of the social taboo. Bernays didn’t change the product; he changed the behaviour - based on the science of psychology. Bernays used psychology to answer the question of why, before using public relations tactics to change attitudes and, therefore, behaviour.
Hear about Bernay’s cigarette campaign in the documentary, “The Century of Self.”
John Beardsley and the Psychology of Human Preferences
John Beardsley, in an excellent article for Public Relations Strategist, discusses the psychology of human preferences based on the research of two psychologists, Daniel Kahneman and Amos Tversky:
“There has been an outbreak of a rare disease, and 600 people are expected to die if nothing is done. You have to choose between two public-health programs to combat the disease. If you choose Program A, there is a 100 percent chance of saving 200 lives. The alternative, Program B, has a one-third chance of saving 600 lives and a two-thirds chance of saving no one. If Program C is adopted, 400 people will die. But with Program D, there is a one-third probability that no one will die and a two-thirds probability that 600 people will die.”
Most people asked to choose between A and B will choose A. In the cases of C and D, most people will pick D. Why? All four choices are mathematically equivalent, which is important to remember. A is no different from D; it presents the same chance of loss or gain. In answering the question why, the psychologists discovered that the reason people are often willing to gamble if it is to prevent a loss (A) but not when it means a gain (D), lies in how the question has been framed. If public relations practitioners has to present this program to the public, they need to first understand how the public will react to it. Since both programs are essentially the same, how do you develop a successful communications strategy? How do you know which option will be received most favourably? Framing the program for the public in such a way as to win public support for it means knowing why people would pick A over B. An understanding of psychology is basic to helping provide those kinds of answers.
To become an effective communicator, it is important to understand how people behave, react and communicate. That does not mean public relations practitioners require degrees in psychology in order to create clear and effective communication. Incorporating psychology into practice at its core means being able to understand the science and apply it to the art.
Works Cited
Anonymous. Public Relations. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_Relations
John Beardsley. Public Relations Strategist. Spring 2003. Vol. 9 Issue 2, p. 42
Edward Bernays. The Later Years: Public Relations Insights, 1956-86, (H&M Publishers, 1986)
Adam Curtis. The Century of the Self. http://www.infectiousvideos.com/index.php?p=showvid&sid=1117&fil=0000000056&o=0&idx=6&sb=daily&a=playvid&r=Torches_of_Freedom
