Cognitive Battlefield Part II: A framework for packaging information

Part I of the Cognitive Battlefield series looks at identifying important themes and priorities, then rank-orders these priorities and uses them to evaluate the favourability of an actor (e.g. a political candidate) or an object (e.g. Coca-Cola).

Part II looks at how to package those priorities in a way that makes the message “sticky” to influence people’s attitudes.

Confirmation of existing beliefs, source credibility, and hot cognition, are all strategies that can be used make messages compelling, the report found.

The packaging of the message can be used to unify people, or divide them. Authors Clifford Young and Katie Ziemer highlight this by looking at the messaging by the Republican and Democratic parties for strengthening the US economy.