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Licensed Unlicensed Requires Authentication Published by Academic Studies Press October 1, 2018

Evocative Advocates and Stirring Statesmen: Law, Politics, and the Weaponization of Imagery

  • Carlton Patrick

Abstract

This article shows how descriptive imagery can be used to hijack evolved psychological instincts and prejudice the judgment of others, particularly in the legal and political domains. By mimicking the cues that represented threats to our ancestors, those wishing to color the perception of others can subtly trigger the affective responses that evolved to help navigate ancestral threats. When this happens, logic may be unseated in favor of deep-seated instinctual responses, often to a problematic degree. In this way, lawyers, politicians, and activists, taking a page out of the playbook of novelists and other storytellers, can weaponize words, images, descriptions, and narratives to, often improperly, sway the opinions of others.

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Published Online: 2018-10-01
Published in Print: 2018-10-01

© 2018 Academic Studies Press

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