The Lost Doctrine: Suggestion Theory in Early Media Effects Research
by Patrick R. Parsons
Parsons, P. R. (2021). The lost doctrine: Suggestion theory in early media effects research. Journalism & communication monographs, 23(2), 80-138.
Abstract
This monograph examines the history of the “suggestion doctrine,” a theory of communicative influence that arose in social psychology at the turn of the 20th century and was applied to the study of media effects before World War II. During that period, suggestion theory was one of the foremost psychological explanations of opinion change and a dominant theory of media influence. Despite its long prominence in early social science and media studies, the doctrine has been largely ignored in contemporary histories of mass communication research. Although writers debate the origins and nature of early media effects scholarship, few of the contending parties address the role of the suggestion doctrine, and those who do offer but a passing reference. My purpose here, therefore, is to recover an important but forgotten part of the intellectual history of the field.
Overview
Two key components of suggestion theory contains:
Media contains direct uncritically accepted effect on people
The effect is varried by demographic (age, education level, gender, ethnicity etc.) and source (context, credibility etc.)
The Received and Contest History
The "Nature History" of Effects Research
Media effect research can be divided into 4 - 6 eras, but two majors one are eras of direct effect and limited effect.
direct effect: 1900s to 1930s, core view is that media is very powerful (magic bullet / hypodermic needle)
limited effect: 1940 to 1960s, some key people include Lazarsfeld, Carl Hovland, Irving Janis, Leon Festinger, and Joseph Klapper. Research on limited effect of media
Byeond limited effect: 1970s. New theories such as agenda setting, cultivation analysis, spiral of sielnce.
The Hypodermic Assumptions
This was the core assumption in direct effect. Rested on two theoretical pillars: sociological and psychological.
Sociological pillar (more aggrement): transition from rural agrarian setting to urban industrial setting make people suspectible to media
Psychological pillar: different theories such as the Theory of Mind, Freudian interpretations, Stimulis-Response (S-R) theory, instinct theory
The Received History - Points of Contention
Point 1: True science research didn't start until late 30s. The magic bullet view were only held as popular belief by layman
Point 2: Early theorists never assumed uniform effects, they always thought about variability
The Missing Piece
Suggestion theory, which was relevant to the early theories, were missing from this conversion.
The History of Suggestion Theory (organizing title)
European Origins
The deep root of suggestion theory can be traced back to medieval mysticism. Later Gabriel Tarde formulated three forms of transmission of regular behaviors: repetition (imitation), opposition and adaption.
Eventually suggestion process appeared in three important paradigms in social psychology in the early 20th century:
crowd theory: Gustave Le Bon looked at crowd psychology
instinct theory (later in US):
behaviorism (later in US)
U.S. Adoption
The suggestion theory and the work of Tarde, Le Bon got adopted in U.S. in 1900s to 20s
Suggestion Evolves
In U.S., the suggestion theory divorced from crowd theory and focused more on emerging models of instinct theory and behaviorism.
Suggestion and Imitation: suggestion and imitation were conceptually disentangled in the 20s. Imitation became the study of influence through observed behavior, which was intuitively more relevant to children.
Perceptual and Attitudinal Suggestion: The emphasis on opinion formation and modification by suggestion were in full blossom around the 30s
New Theoretical Homes
Suggestion theory were developed in two new theoretical homes:
Suggestion, Attitude Change, and Instinct: e.g., McDougall 1909
Suggestion, Attitude Change, and Behaviorism: S-R theory and learning theory were being deployed in many areas.
Variability
Three key sources of variabilies in suggestion effects were being investigated:
Demogprahic and Contextual Conditionality:
Prestige Suggestion (source credibility)
Suggestion and Group Opinion
Suggestion, Attitudes, and Mass Media
Suggestion theory were being used in many areas of media effect include
Suggestion, Media and Anti-Social Behavior
Suggestion and Propaganda / Advertising
Some key advertising figures: Walter Scott (The Theory of Advertising and The Psychology of Advertising), Herbert DeBower (Advertising Principles)
Porpaganda lense were heavily focused on radio
Suggestion and Emotion
Irrationalism and the Decline of Suggestion
Suggestion theory started to fade out by the 1950s due to
fear and faith: proressives of the period remained confidence in individuals' ability to surmount the effects of propaganda
deuling paradigms: rationality based theories becoming new mainstream models
The Gestalt Critique: Gestalt theory proposed a rational model of attitude change in contrast to irrational cognitive processes
Losing the Past
Two key people's work which were inspired by suggestion theory did not cite suggestion theory, contributing to the lost of suggestion theory:
Hovland's theory of attitude change: Suggestion as a process was absent due to Hovland setting this theory on top of Gestalt-inclined rationalism school and persuastion literature.
Lazarsfeld's work followed similiar path
Creating the Past: The Rise of the Magic Bullet
The rise of magic bullet sort of echoed with original suggestion theory.
The BASR and the Hypodermic Model: Lazarsfeld's BASR work started investigating the hypodermic model (uniform effect of media)
Wilbur Schramm later popularized the assumptions
But later more critiques aroudn variability started to pop-in.
The Lost Legacy
Many later theories echos with suggestion theory, such as the Elaboration Likelihood model (ELM) and work around emotion and suggestion.
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