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Economic-political pressures are mediated by propaganda. Propaganda can be defined as the manipulation of information and symbols by authority for political purposes to induce desired attitudes (beliefs) and behaviors in the target population. The massive effects of prestige suggestion are well-known but often ignored. One need but be reminded of the classic Milgrim studies in which subjects "shocked" targets beyond reason and belief when commanded by an experimenter invested with authority. Although we can easily accept the notion that beliefs are influenced by inner sets and external demand characteristics, we become uncomfortable when the predicate is changed from belief to fact. Yet the literature is rife with examples of distortion concerning facts as well as beliefs. Politically partisan college students report different facts as well as perceived biases from the same news program. College students can be literally induced to eat worms, rationalizing by saying 1) it's not so bad, 2) it makes me brave or heroic or 3) I deserve to be punished. A NASA trainer, interviewed shortly after the disaster, stated that since the government didn't have enough money to fix everything, it did the best it could and we must carry on. This is what is technically called impression maintenance, attribution bias - or in other terms, self-confirming hypothesis and beliefs.

To specifically focus on cognitive variables, what are called implicit schemas - underlying sets that influence attributional biases and behavior (the designation of cause or responsibility) - can also be considered in terms of overt, conscious cognitive behavior. It is asserted that problem-oriented, focused cognitive activity is open to the same kinds of defensive operation that we would readily acknowledge if the situation were defined as psycho-pathological. In a well functioning bureaucratic group, for example, the conscious absence of conflict, the ready acquiescence to formula and slogan, the automatic cuing by the leaders of members' responses, the manipulation,

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