Propaganda as Stimulus Control: The Case of The Iraqi Invasion of Kuwait

Abstract

This article presents a content analysis of the Bush Administration’s public statements reported in the New York limes in the aftermath of Iraq’s invasion of Kuwait in August 1990, The content is categorized into several types of stimulus control operations, including establishing operations, stimulus equivalence, rules, and discriminative stimuli. A heuristic model is developed to help explain how these stimulus control operations produced public consensus for war despite the public’s continuing reluctance to endorse military action. Several implications of the behavioral perspective are briefly entertained.