Information wars, a new phenomenon of the 21st century, are most closely tied to the use and interpretation of information, its contextual application, and techniques for manipulating public consciousness. Mass manipulation technologies (the manipulation of public consciousness in modern hybrid wars) are social technologies of overt or covert informational-psychological control over the psyche, actions, and behavior of an individual or groups of people, as well as the shaping of their ideas, tastes, needs, and values, exerting a repressive influence on the target. The most important structural element of mass manipulation technologies is the human being - their values, intellect, psyche, and behavior.
To win a hybrid war, it is critically important to impose on the adversary a distorted picture of the world based on false cause-and-effect relationships, which ultimately leads to the mythologization of public consciousness and dominance in the informational and power confrontation. A mythologized consciousness is highly susceptible to manipulative techniques: by influencing it, the party waging hybrid confrontation can achieve its goals with minimal resources and maximum results.
This kind of influence on the public opinion of the country subjected to hybrid aggression is aimed at provoking specific psychological and behavioral reactions among citizens and the state's military-political leadership, weakening its overall defense capability, and serving as a preparatory phase for further use of force. To achieve these goals, the aggressor state actively employs techniques for manipulating public consciousness during a hybrid war, techniques that are largely latent in nature. As a result, the target population's perception of reality becomes distorted in the direction desired by the manipulator.
During information-hybrid confrontation, a diverse arsenal of manipulative techniques is used, tailored to different age, demographic, ethno-national, religious, and other population groups in order to achieve the desired result. Manipulative techniques are usually applied together with economic, military, and political means, which reinforces their impact on public consciousness and makes resistance increasingly difficult. This is because, during information-hybrid wars, the manipulator can create a real (or fabricated) problem for the population of the target state and then offer solutions in a way that benefits the manipulator, thereby laying the groundwork for further manipulative influence. In other words, the adversary uses a range of tools to mythologize public consciousness through manipulative techniques, with the aim of further "exploiting" destructive social myths that have been artificially constructed and deliberately embedded into the population's consciousness to serve its own purposes.
Thus, the manipulation of public consciousness has evolved from a barely noticeable phenomenon into a powerful technology within the context of hybrid warfare with a significant information component - a kind of information weapon.
The following techniques for manipulating public consciousness are used in modern mass media:
Anonymous authority - a deception technique belonging to so-called gray propaganda, involving an appeal to authority - a religious figure, a well-known politician, a show-business representative, an influential scientist, and so on.
"Hunger strike" - a fairly effective technique of emotional influence on the electorate and psychological pressure on the authorities, emotionally covered in the media with accusations of inhumanity against the authorities or a specific official.
"Everyday narrative" - a technique of influencing public consciousness that devalues the significance of what has happened and creates in the mass audience the impression that the event is insignificant, not requiring particular attention or public evaluation. As a result, this technique allows the media to preserve the illusion of objective coverage of events while diverting attention from truly important social events that the authorities prefer not to draw attention to.
"Stop, thief!" - a discrediting technique in which those who are guilty, sensing defeat, are the first to raise an outcry and redirect public anger elsewhere. This technique is often used by so-called human rights defenders whose task is to disorganize the public.
Emotional resonance - a way of creating a particular mood in a broad audience in order to simultaneously convey propagandistic information. This technique removes the psychological defense a person consciously builds when trying to protect themselves from propaganda or advertising "brainwashing." As experts note, when propagandistic influence occurs at the emotional level, beyond conscious control, no rational counterarguments work.
Excessive praise - a technique used to combat an opponent by constantly praising them appropriately or reminding people of their extraordinary abilities inappropriately, keeping their name constantly in circulation and exaggerating their abilities until everyone becomes annoyed, at which point the mere mention of the person triggers irritation. During election campaigns in particular, this technique is often used to create information noise, hiding an important event or problem behind a stream of secondary messages.
Boomerang effect. When an opponent is subjected to total harassment, it can generate pity and sympathy from a broad audience. The same happens when authorities decide to combat widespread negative rumors - trust in the rumors only increases. The boomerang effect can also work the other way: during election campaigns, media saturation with a candidate's advertising begins to irritate the audience.
Information blockade. Depriving the opponent of the ability to publicly present their position is one of the main tasks of a propaganda war.
Information dominance - a technique in which, for example during election campaigns, biased media create an information frenzy focused solely on one candidate.
Halo effect - a technique based on widespread cognitive-error stereotypes inherent in human psychology:
Presence effect (or illusion of authenticity) - a technique involving actions that imitate reality. It is used in "reports from the battlefield" and crime coverage, when footage of a "real" criminal arrest or a car accident is fabricated after the fact. The illusion of a "combat environment" is created, for example, through sharp camera movements and loss of focus, making it appear as though the cameraman is filming reality in terrible agitation under fire. The presence effect (or illusion of authenticity) has a strong emotional impact on people.
Use of mediators - a technique based on two premises:
Feedback - a technique associated with creating an illusion of public participation in the information process. Modern mass media widely practice forms of feedback with the mass audience, such as call-ins during live broadcasts or telephone voting on answer options to questions.
A variant of feedback can be considered the various formats in which high-ranking figures communicate with ordinary people. Corresponding TV programs are organized so that the head of state (or another high-ranking figure) appears to answer spontaneously, fluently, coherently, and very successfully several dozen fairly difficult questions submitted in a short time by citizens via phone or the internet. But the best improvisation is a carefully prepared one - in reality, the high-ranking figure gives answers that have been meticulously prepared in advance by a team.
Commentary - a technique in which a report of a fact is accompanied by a commentator's interpretation, offering the mass audience several possible explanations. The commentator's skill determines which version of the commentary will seem the most plausible.
A fairly powerful technique of manipulating public consciousness is the rewriting of history. This technique is effective over the long term, when a desired worldview needs to be gradually formed. It works by destroying historical memory through radio and television, the press, theatrical performances, films, books, lectures, and so on. In this way, an illusory world is constructed that is perceived as real.
Thus, techniques for manipulating public consciousness in modern hybrid wars have become a powerful tool of influence, allowing aggressors to shape a desired perception of reality, weaken defense capability, and demoralize the population of the target state. They encompass a wide range of methods — from psychological pressure and emotional resonance to information dominance, the "halo effect," and the rewriting of history. The key element of these technologies is the human being — their values, psyche, and behavior — which makes populations vulnerable to deeply calculated manipulation. Ultimately, understanding, systematizing, and countering these methods is critically important for ensuring information security and societal resilience amid hybrid conflicts, as well as for developing effective strategies to counter modern threats. These issues are examined in greater detail in Sidcon's book "Modern Hybrid Warfare Technologies" - English edition available here.
To win a hybrid war, it is critically important to impose on the adversary a distorted picture of the world based on false cause-and-effect relationships, which ultimately leads to the mythologization of public consciousness and dominance in the informational and power confrontation. A mythologized consciousness is highly susceptible to manipulative techniques: by influencing it, the party waging hybrid confrontation can achieve its goals with minimal resources and maximum results.
This kind of influence on the public opinion of the country subjected to hybrid aggression is aimed at provoking specific psychological and behavioral reactions among citizens and the state's military-political leadership, weakening its overall defense capability, and serving as a preparatory phase for further use of force. To achieve these goals, the aggressor state actively employs techniques for manipulating public consciousness during a hybrid war, techniques that are largely latent in nature. As a result, the target population's perception of reality becomes distorted in the direction desired by the manipulator.
During information-hybrid confrontation, a diverse arsenal of manipulative techniques is used, tailored to different age, demographic, ethno-national, religious, and other population groups in order to achieve the desired result. Manipulative techniques are usually applied together with economic, military, and political means, which reinforces their impact on public consciousness and makes resistance increasingly difficult. This is because, during information-hybrid wars, the manipulator can create a real (or fabricated) problem for the population of the target state and then offer solutions in a way that benefits the manipulator, thereby laying the groundwork for further manipulative influence. In other words, the adversary uses a range of tools to mythologize public consciousness through manipulative techniques, with the aim of further "exploiting" destructive social myths that have been artificially constructed and deliberately embedded into the population's consciousness to serve its own purposes.
Thus, the manipulation of public consciousness has evolved from a barely noticeable phenomenon into a powerful technology within the context of hybrid warfare with a significant information component - a kind of information weapon.
The following techniques for manipulating public consciousness are used in modern mass media:
Anonymous authority - a deception technique belonging to so-called gray propaganda, involving an appeal to authority - a religious figure, a well-known politician, a show-business representative, an influential scientist, and so on.
"Hunger strike" - a fairly effective technique of emotional influence on the electorate and psychological pressure on the authorities, emotionally covered in the media with accusations of inhumanity against the authorities or a specific official.
"Everyday narrative" - a technique of influencing public consciousness that devalues the significance of what has happened and creates in the mass audience the impression that the event is insignificant, not requiring particular attention or public evaluation. As a result, this technique allows the media to preserve the illusion of objective coverage of events while diverting attention from truly important social events that the authorities prefer not to draw attention to.
"Stop, thief!" - a discrediting technique in which those who are guilty, sensing defeat, are the first to raise an outcry and redirect public anger elsewhere. This technique is often used by so-called human rights defenders whose task is to disorganize the public.
Emotional resonance - a way of creating a particular mood in a broad audience in order to simultaneously convey propagandistic information. This technique removes the psychological defense a person consciously builds when trying to protect themselves from propaganda or advertising "brainwashing." As experts note, when propagandistic influence occurs at the emotional level, beyond conscious control, no rational counterarguments work.
Excessive praise - a technique used to combat an opponent by constantly praising them appropriately or reminding people of their extraordinary abilities inappropriately, keeping their name constantly in circulation and exaggerating their abilities until everyone becomes annoyed, at which point the mere mention of the person triggers irritation. During election campaigns in particular, this technique is often used to create information noise, hiding an important event or problem behind a stream of secondary messages.
Boomerang effect. When an opponent is subjected to total harassment, it can generate pity and sympathy from a broad audience. The same happens when authorities decide to combat widespread negative rumors - trust in the rumors only increases. The boomerang effect can also work the other way: during election campaigns, media saturation with a candidate's advertising begins to irritate the audience.
Information blockade. Depriving the opponent of the ability to publicly present their position is one of the main tasks of a propaganda war.
Information dominance - a technique in which, for example during election campaigns, biased media create an information frenzy focused solely on one candidate.
Halo effect - a technique based on widespread cognitive-error stereotypes inherent in human psychology:
- "Nearby means together." Being near a famous or high-ranking person somewhat elevates a person's status in the eyes of others.
- The second stereotype is the belief that a person who has achieved significant success in one field is capable of great achievements in other fields as well. However, numerous facts prove this to be a common mistake. There are countless examples of people who excel brilliantly at one thing and turn out to be completely helpless in another.
Presence effect (or illusion of authenticity) - a technique involving actions that imitate reality. It is used in "reports from the battlefield" and crime coverage, when footage of a "real" criminal arrest or a car accident is fabricated after the fact. The illusion of a "combat environment" is created, for example, through sharp camera movements and loss of focus, making it appear as though the cameraman is filming reality in terrible agitation under fire. The presence effect (or illusion of authenticity) has a strong emotional impact on people.
Use of mediators - a technique based on two premises:
- The greatest effect on shaping public opinion on any issue is achieved not through massive propaganda campaigns in the media, but through myths, rumors, and gossip that spread within society;
- Effective informational influence on a person is achieved not directly through mass media, but through people who are significant or familiar and authoritative to them (opinion leaders) - transmitters of views and rumors;
- "Contrasting words" are used to negatively characterize the opponent (for example, labeling them with derogatory political terms).
Feedback - a technique associated with creating an illusion of public participation in the information process. Modern mass media widely practice forms of feedback with the mass audience, such as call-ins during live broadcasts or telephone voting on answer options to questions.
A variant of feedback can be considered the various formats in which high-ranking figures communicate with ordinary people. Corresponding TV programs are organized so that the head of state (or another high-ranking figure) appears to answer spontaneously, fluently, coherently, and very successfully several dozen fairly difficult questions submitted in a short time by citizens via phone or the internet. But the best improvisation is a carefully prepared one - in reality, the high-ranking figure gives answers that have been meticulously prepared in advance by a team.
Commentary - a technique in which a report of a fact is accompanied by a commentator's interpretation, offering the mass audience several possible explanations. The commentator's skill determines which version of the commentary will seem the most plausible.
A fairly powerful technique of manipulating public consciousness is the rewriting of history. This technique is effective over the long term, when a desired worldview needs to be gradually formed. It works by destroying historical memory through radio and television, the press, theatrical performances, films, books, lectures, and so on. In this way, an illusory world is constructed that is perceived as real.
Thus, techniques for manipulating public consciousness in modern hybrid wars have become a powerful tool of influence, allowing aggressors to shape a desired perception of reality, weaken defense capability, and demoralize the population of the target state. They encompass a wide range of methods — from psychological pressure and emotional resonance to information dominance, the "halo effect," and the rewriting of history. The key element of these technologies is the human being — their values, psyche, and behavior — which makes populations vulnerable to deeply calculated manipulation. Ultimately, understanding, systematizing, and countering these methods is critically important for ensuring information security and societal resilience amid hybrid conflicts, as well as for developing effective strategies to counter modern threats. These issues are examined in greater detail in Sidcon's book "Modern Hybrid Warfare Technologies" - English edition available here.