Edward L. Bernays Books

Public opinion is not a sudden, mysterious wave of feeling; it is the cumulative result of countless impressions and communications, of habits, traditions, and shared values. In this chapter I explored how the opinions of a society emerge from group interactions and how they act as invisible governo...

From Crystallizing Public Opinion

Individual judgment seldom develops in isolation. We think as members of groups, moved by emotions and identifications more than by abstract reasoning. Drawing from contemporary psychology—particularly the work of Le Bon and Trotter—I explained how collective thinking amplifies suggestion and imitat...

From Crystallizing Public Opinion

Every individual believes himself to act independently, yet in truth, the great majority move as part of the collective mind. Psychology tells us that we are creatures of imitation and association. Our tastes, opinions, and choices are shaped less by solitary reasoning and more by the emotional cont...

From Propaganda

Modern society does not only have political leaders; it has interpreters, mediators of ideas—those whom I called the new propagandists. These are the public relations counselors, the professionals who analyze public opinion, formulate messages, and influence perception through systematic communicati...

From Propaganda