Age of Propaganda

Persuasion in advertising, sales and politics is the subject of Anthony Pratkanis and Elliot Aronson's study of modern propaganda. Combining the history of propaganda with research in social psychology, the authors show how campaigners, advertisers, sales agents, televangelists and demagogues often play on emotions, above all fear and irrational hope, and how those appeals warp the public's picture of the world. They set this against a democracy in which careful debate is giving way to soundbites, and in which Americans produce 57 percent of the world's advertising while making up 6 percent of its population. The revised edition adds talk radio, recent elections, the Clinton and Lewinsky scandal, the Columbine shootings, and tactics built on hypocrisy and false allegations.

Tools of Titans reports that GrowthLab founder Ramit Sethi studies the psychology of persuasion and that it is one of the books he gives away most often.