Member-only story
PsyOps in Election Campaigning
As a communications professional, elections excite me as the battle for hearts and minds offers me many learning opportunities in the domain of persuasion strategies.
Fortunately, my professional training and experience equip me with the ability to discern the persuasion tactics candidates employ to sway voters. This prevents me from being misled by candidates who do not prioritize honesty.
A review of the ongoing Singapore presidential campaign highlights the use of PsyOps influence techniques. The following are three tactics most extensively used by the candidates and their teams:
- Glittering Generalization. In this tactic, candidates turn their opponent into the bogeyman by creating a false dichotomy through the cherry-picking facts and making generalizations about their opponent. Candidates subsequently appeal to voters' valued ideals like freedom, fairness, and equality and offer themselves as the savior.
- Transference. Here, candidates project the negative qualities of a person, object, or entity onto their opponent by emphasizing their affiliation. The objective is to make their opponent less desirable by tapping on the existing fear or anger voters have for the person, object, or entity.
