Thesis
Messages in opposition: an evolutionary perspective on elites' use of discourse during war
Washington State University
Master of Arts (MA), Washington State University
2007
Handle:
https://hdl.handle.net/2376/100987
Abstract
Organized conflicts in state-level societies are cooperative ventures. In attempting to sway popular opinion to support or oppose conflicts, elites use media broadcasts to influence behavior. This paper proposes that media transmissions are simply a technological extension of the signals used by all animals. Under signaling theory (as defined by behavior ecology), elites, then, would be expected to broadcast signals tied to survival, fertility, resources, and predatory threats. Media messages, from this viewpoint, are elite's attempt to solicit support through the use of discourse tied to fitness interests. The primary question to be answered in this analysis is: do elites use images tied to fitness interests to influence the population? While behavioral ecology predicts that honest signals should be selected for as they have the greatest impact on the receiver's fitness, human language allows elites to circumvent honest signals through messages containing multiple meanings that allow the receiver to interpret the message from their own perspective. A second line of inquiry asks, are messages from elites ambiguous? To test predictions developed from these inquiries, a cross-cultural sample of 116 transcripts of speeches and prepared remarks concerning the current conflict in Iraq and the Vietnam War are examined using content analysis. While linear regression cannot validate several of the predictions, the iv analysis reveals that youth opposed to war used images tied to fitness interests in survival. This is expected as the direct participation of young men in war is a threat to their reproductive fitness. Following the test of the predictions an exploratory analysis on the inquiries reveals that elites' use of ambiguous discourse tied to fitness interests is dependent on their sociopolitical position and sociopolitical context (with war approval ratings and age of the presenter best the predictors). In summary, through the manipulation of signals, their power position, and their ability to control language, elites can manipulate the behavior of a population to support the interests of elites.
Metrics
10 Record Views
Details
- Title
- Messages in opposition
- Creators
- Timothy Alexander Barela
- Contributors
- Rob Quinlan (Degree Supervisor)
- Awarding Institution
- Washington State University
- Academic Unit
- Anthropology, Department of
- Theses and Dissertations
- Master of Arts (MA), Washington State University
- Publisher
- Washington State University; [Pullman, Washington] :
- Identifiers
- 99900525058301842
- Language
- English
- Resource Type
- Thesis