When propaganda resonates
2026-08-03
Existing scholarship on propaganda in authoritarian regimes centers on whether it persuades or coerces. Within the persuasion camp, researchers have examined how factors such as message source, content, credibility, and audience demographics shape propaganda effectiveness. This study shifts attention to psychological needs. Drawing on evidence from China, it integrates multi‐round survey experiments, a virtual lab‐in‐the‐field experiment using a mobile news app developed by the author, text analysis of state media, and field interviews. The results show that propaganda appealing to the need to belong, the need to maintain self‐esteem, or the need to express core values is most effective among individuals for whom the corresponding need is particularly strong—but generalized propaganda, even when psychologically engaging, is not. The findings suggest that propaganda is most persuasive when targeted to stable psychological orientations rather than designed for broad consumption. These findings have implications for understanding how authoritarian regimes sustain public support: propaganda effectiveness depends not only on content or reach, but also on how closely its psychological appeals correspond to the stable motivational orientations of its audience. The shift in authoritarian communication strategies toward psychologically targeted appeals makes the mechanisms identified here increasingly relevant to understanding contemporary propaganda.