Measures to Prevent Manipulation with Public Sentiments

Abstract

The article is aimed at identifying potential measures to prevent manipulation with public sentiments and evaluating their possible efficiency. It is shown that freedom of speech and independence of the media not only do not prevent the spread of manipulation of public sentiment, but also simplify the process of creating conditions conducive to manipulation. Potential measures to prevent manipulation with public sentiments are provided, which can be divided into three main groups: repressive measures, a policy of comprehensive resolution of a common problem, and measures to improve the overall erudition of society. The efficiency of the mentioned measures to prevent manipulation and the prospects for their application are analyzed. Repressive measures have been shown to be the least efficient group of measures because of their inability to eliminate the potential for manipulation and the extreme complexity of detecting and proving a fact of manipulation. It is also identified that when the society’s concern about the manipulation of public sentiments reaches a certain level, there is a risk that such repressive measures themselves become an instrument of manipulation. It is determined that a policy of comprehensive resolution of a common problem is efficient only if it is applied before the manipulation or in its initial stages. It is displayed that measures to improve the overall erudition of society are the only group of measures that can eliminate the very possibility of creating favorable conditions for manipulation with public sentiments. It is determined, however, that the main obstacle to use of this group of measures to prevent manipulation with public sentiments is the high level of costs, which consist of: the direct costs of the Government providing additional educational services; the costs to recipients of educational services to take additional courses; transactional costs arising from coercion to comply with the requirements of educational bureaucratic procedures, and the costs of the economy arising from inefficient use of the labor force.

Keywords

• manipulation
• public sentiment
• transaction costs