Many people have experienced at least once in their lives influence of public opinion, expressed in condemnation, disapproval, criticism, etc.

Society is constantly discussing human behavior, social phenomena, and more.

But why is the influence of public opinion so important to some of us?

We often depend not only on circumstances, but also on our environment: team, family, friends, acquaintances, colleagues. And to us . We cannot ignore him.

These small social units are, and therefore their opinion also belongs to the variety of public opinion.

Such influence of public opinion can be both positive (positive) and negative (negative).

The human factor is very unpredictable. It is impossible to say with absolute certainty that this or that phenomenon will cause approval or sharp criticism of people.

Today, thanks to the universal computerization and comprehensiveness of the global network, such reflectors of public opinion as all kinds of forums have appeared.

Based on the majority of similar comments received on the forums, you can determine what the public opinion is on a particular issue. But influence of public opinion is not essential for every phenomenon or person.

So, for example, political processes for the most part are formed regardless of public opinion (at the will of people's representatives - deputies, as well as members of the Government and other leading persons).

Although the long-term popular discontent, expressed in various protests, marches, picketing, may ultimately have a certain impact on political processes.

People who lead an asocial existence (opposing themselves to society or ignoring it) also do not feel the influence of public opinion, because they absolutely do not care what others think about them.

Insecure, insecure people, as well as those who carry out public assignments, are engaged in public or leadership activities, are greatly influenced by public opinion, because under such circumstances they come under close public scrutiny.

Public opinion is influenced by the media, which can form and stir up public interest, as well as the statements of various famous people: politicians, public figures, artists, athletes.

Entrepreneurs are also experiencing influence of public opinion, because their activities are discussed both by consumers who are not indifferent to various (promotions, discounts, sales, bonuses), and by other businessmen (partners, competitors).

Influence of public opinion on management processes

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1. Public opinion, its essence

Public opinion is a concept that, over the past decades, was almost completely absent in the political vocabulary of Soviet society. In the process of perestroika, heated debates were going on around him: “did public opinion exist in the country during the era of Stalin and Brezhnev? Does it exist today? " Some of these questions were answered positively, others negatively. However, both are right, since within the framework of European civilization this concept is endowed with not one, but two different meanings: on the one hand, it is a political institution that stably and effectively participates in the exercise of power, represents one of the recognized, legalized mechanisms of the decision-making process at all levels of society, and on the other, it is just an aggregate judgment shared by various social communities about certain events, phenomena of reality.

Alas, those who question the existence of public opinion in the USSR in the past and in the present are right, if they mean the first aspect of the problem. The very advancement of the slogan "learn democracy" by the leaders of perestroika, among other things, means that this democracy has not yet existed in the country, that the people were completely rejected from the real mechanisms of government and had to either participate in the humiliating masquerades of universal approval. , or demonstrate traditional silence. At the same time, these doubts are not at all justified when it comes to the second, broader meaning of the concept under consideration.

In this sense, public opinion is a state of mass consciousness, which contains the attitude (latent or explicit) of people to events and phenomena of social reality, to the activities of various social institutions, groups and individuals. In terms of relationships with the objects of its influence, it acts in expressive, control, advisory, directive functions, that is, it takes a certain position, gives advice, makes a decision, etc. Accordingly, from the point of view of the content of judgment, public opinions can be evaluative, analytical, constructive , normative, and from the point of view of the form - positive and negative.

Public opinion operates in almost all spheres of society. However, the subjects of his statements are determined by a number of boundaries. First of all, these are the natural boundaries of the formation of public opinion, which it can never and never do. So, as the object of public statements, only those events and phenomena of reality that arouse public interest, are distinguished by social significance and relevance. In addition, the problems on which public opinion is expressed suggest the possibility of divergence in assessments, that is, they contain a greater or lesser point of controversy. The so-called logical boundaries of the ability to judge public opinion coincide with the objective cognitive capabilities of the mass consciousness (for example, the measure of its competence); these boundaries are constantly "violated" by spontaneously functioning public opinion, but must necessarily be taken into account when evaluating (analyzing) public statements. Finally, the content of the judgments of public opinion is also determined, so to speak, by the artificial boundaries of its functioning - certain social conditions in which public opinion actually has to act, primarily by the volume and breadth of the open circulating in society, accessible to all and each information.

Public opinion is formed and functions both within the framework of society as a whole, and within the framework of various (group v mass) communities operating in it - social, regional, professional, political, cultural and others. In this sense, one can speak not only about the public opinion of the whole country) but also about public opinion, for example, of the working class, residents of the region, persons of the same profession, the audience of a television program, etc. opinion can be expressed by both the community as a whole and any of its constituent “parts” - regardless of the content of their judgments, whether they speak out “for” or “against”, whether they form a “majority” or “minority” ". In accordance with this, in its structure, public opinion can be more or less monistic, unanimous, and pluralistic, consisting of a number of points of view that do not coincide with each other.

Numerous forms of social experience, primarily the experience of the closest social environment of people, as well as scientific knowledge, official information, information supplied by educational and cultural institutions, the media and propaganda, etc., can act as a source of formation of public opinion. Since each of these sources reflects the reality with varying degrees of adequacy, the public opinion formed on this basis can be more or less "true", corresponding to the real interests of social development, or "false" , illusory.

In a developed democratic society, the usual channels (and forms) of expression of public opinion are: elections of government bodies, direct participation of the masses in government, the press and other means of mass communication, meetings, demonstrations, etc. At the same time, the activity of functioning and the actual significance of public opinion in the life of society are determined by the existing social conditions - universal, associated with the level of development of productive forces in society, the nature of production relations, the state of mass culture, etc .; and specific ones related to the level of development of democratic institutions and freedoms, primarily freedom of expression - speech, press, assembly, demonstrations, etc.

Public opinion is a historical phenomenon. With the development of human civilization, the economic, social, political, technical and other conditions of its functioning change and together with them its very status in the life of society, its role increases, its functions become more complex, the scope of activity expands, etc. All these processes, noting just the transformation of public opinion from a simple judgment of the masses, which is valid only within the limited framework of certain communities, into a political institution of the life of societies as a whole, become especially significant in the last decades and years of the life of the world. They are based on the law of history discovered by Karl Marx, according to which, together with the thoroughness of historical action, the volume of the mass, whose business this action is ("The Holy Family"), will grow. And it is precisely with this universal and objective law, with the social activity of the masses, and not with all sorts of subjective attitudes and aspirations of individual progressive political leaders, one should first of all connect people's hopes for achieving qualitative progress in the structure of social life on Earth.

The term "public opinion" in France in the 18th century meant public expressions of personal opinions of a limited, but rather significant part of the population, which, possessing large economic and cultural capital, claimed to participate in government and intended to influence politicians with the help of libels and the so-called "Public" press. In the 19th century, under the influence of democratic views based on the fact that the will of the people is the only source of the legitimacy of politics, the publicly expressed opinions of the "social elite" are transformed into popular opinion; a representative system of government leads to the fact that the elite, consisting of elected representatives, considers itself a natural exponent of the interests of the "people" and considers their opinions as an expression of common interests and welfare, excluding the narrow and limited interests of a particular class or group.

And only quite recently, in connection with the emergence of new research methods invented by the social sciences such as public opinion polls, anonymous questionnaires, fast and automatic processing of answers by a computer, the concept of public opinion began to almost completely coincide with the content. although the existence of an objective referent remains unclear. This method makes it possible to call "public opinion" and "democratic", since everyone is directly or indirectly questioned, and "scientific", since everyone's opinion is methodically recorded and taken into account. Initially used in politics to elicit voter intent ahead of an election, this method has been able to provide data that are astoundingly predictive and scientifically flawless, since accuracy and reliability were verified by the elections themselves. These pre-election polls capture not so much "opinions" as intentions in behavior in the field of politics, where the poll quite accurately reproduces the situation created by the elections. It is another matter when, at the request of high-ranking officials, and most often the most important press organs, public opinion polling institutes conduct polls in order to determine how "public opinion", that is, the opinion of the majority, relates to extremely different and complex issues, such as international and economic policy, on which the majority of respondents do not have a definite opinion and they did not even think about them. Although being in the minority, due to the specifics of the issues, unequivocal statements about lack of opinion and their random distribution depending on gender, education level and social status are sufficient to understand that the probability of having an opinion is not evenly distributed. Without paying any attention to this, the Institute of Public Opinion, not limiting itself to collecting already existing opinions, often creates "public opinion" from different strata, which is the purest artifact obtained by recording and statistical aggregation of positive and negative responses to already formulated -Baths, often in vague and ambiguous terms, the opinions that survey leaders offer to people taken at random and suitable for voting by age. The publication of these results in "public newspapers", which very often ordered the survey, in most cases is a political step that has the appearance of legality, scientific nature and democracy, with the help of which a public or private group that has the means to pay for conducting polling, can give his private opinion the appearance of universality, which is meant by "public opinion".

As it spreads, the practice of conducting public opinion polls has led to changes in the political game: politicians are now forced to reckon with this new authority under the control of political scientists, which is better than "representatives of the people" to express what the people want and what they think ... Public opinion polling institutes are now interfering in political life at all levels: they conduct confidential polls for political groups in order to find out, adhering to the logic of marketing, the most fruitful topics of the election campaign, assess the most promising candidates for nomination; they are also at the center of the broadcasts with which the media, by dedicating them to politics, try to turn viewers into judges of the politicians' "oath promises"; the national press regularly commissions polls on topical policy issues to be published. As ostensibly scientific methods are used more and more, claiming to be able to measure the influence of the communication policy of the main political leaders on "public opinion", the emergence of a new concept of politics becomes noticeable: political influence is increasingly becoming the art of managing the whole a set of methods developed by specialists in "communication policy" aimed at "managing public opinion." This means the spread of more or less rigged opinions that are created by institutions on the basis of personal and private responses collected from the population, which for the most part knows little about the intricacies of the political game. Thus, a public opinion poll makes it possible to pass off as resolved any major issue of a political action, using the technique of imposing problems and rigging individual answers, considering as such both personal opinions and collective opinions expressed through representatives.

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Let us recall once again that public opinion is an assessment of a certain problem, from the side of some social community, the setting of a certain social community on this problem.

Attitudes can be positive, negative and neutral ("I don't care" - that is, no attitude). Research shows that most people tend to be neutral about a particular issue. At the same time, there is a relatively small number of people who provide strong support for the problem and the same relatively small group of people who strongly oppose this problem.

The American scientist Leon Festinger showed that individuals tend not to show interest in a problem that does not completely correspond to their point of view or is discordant with it, and, on the contrary, look for additional information that corresponds to their own attitudes or is in tune with them. For example, many orthodox communists insist that there was no artificial famine organized by the communist government in Ukraine in 933, and no evidence can convince them otherwise, since they simply do not take them into account, ignore any information, not in tune with their own attitudes. However, they take note of all the arguments in favor of the communists staying in power (free education, absence of unemployment, etc.) and use them on occasion. So, we can conclude that it is very difficult to change the consciousness of a person who decisively opposed a certain problem or person. Conversely, it is easy to increase support from those who support the problem or sympathize with the person. Therefore, the main object of influence is always those people who have not yet decided.

Social psychologist H. Kentril formulated laws that can be used to control the formation of public opinion:

People's opinion is sensitive only to important issues.

Unusual events can temporarily steer public opinion from one extreme to the other. Public opinion will not stabilize until the prospect looms.

For example, after the explosion of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, the prevailing opinion throughout the world was that all nuclear power plants should be closed. Gradually, the anxiety subsided and public opinion stabilized on the fact that it is irrational to immediately close all nuclear power plants, but they have to be placed under the strict control of international organizations and to achieve maximum safety in the operation of the nuclear power plant.

3. Public opinion is more influenced by events than words, if the word itself is not interpreted as events.

The Fulton speech of Winston Churchill - his speech at Westminster College in Fulton, Missouri, about the "Iron Curtain", which symbolized the beginning of the Cold War, is an example of such words, which in themselves were a significant event. In a speech in Fulton, former British Prime Minister Churchill warned of the threat of tyranny and totalitarianism emanating from the USSR (which created an "iron curtain" from Szczecin in the Baltic to Trieste in the Adriatic). Churchill called for strengthening the UN, creating special relations between Great Britain, the United States and other countries in order to prevent a new war, preserve freedom and democracy. 4. Verbal statements and actions are most significant when public opinion is not yet formed or when people are exposed to and trust a reliable source. That is why the so-called leaders of public opinion are widely used to provide credibility to the message: popular journalists, well-known political scientists, sociologists, etc.

If there is personal interest, then public opinion is extremely difficult to change. It is known that one's own toothache is always more troubling than hunger in Bangladesh.

If public opinion belongs to a small majority or if the social community is not structured, then the action taken influences the formation of a certain social community of public opinion. Let's say the murder in Lvov in 1910. Polish chauvinist Ukrainian student leader Adam Kotska contributed to the awareness of all strata of the then Galician society of the importance of the struggle for the Ukrainian university and the development of public opinion on this problem. Also, a living "chain of connection" in January 1990 was organized in order to clearly show the whole world, as well as skeptics in Ukraine, that all regions of Ukraine stand for state independence, Ukraine is the only one in its desire for independence, and then - contributed to the formation in the Ukrainian and world public opinion that our state should become independent.

7. In a difficult period, people are more sensitive towards their leader. If they trust him, then they show more than just support, and if not, they are less tolerant than usual.

8. People perceive better and more easily form public opinion about goals than methods of achieving them.

For example, in Ukraine, the opinion of the majority of the population is positive about the introduction of a free market economy, about how this transition should take place - there are many considerations.

9. Public opinion, like individual opinion, is usually colored by a certain desire or interest; and when it is based on it, and not just on information, then it reacts much more sharply to what is happening.

For example, if it is known that one of the presidential candidates is not only competent and more honest than the other, but also promised to increase scholarships and pensions after the victory, the public opinion of pensioners and students will react more sharply to events related to this particular candidate.

An important regulator of public opinion is the mass media (mass media). The media in society is not only a way of influencing the masses, but also a means of participation of the masses in social management. This participation is carried out on the basis of comprehensive informing the public about social life in general and about the activities of individual social institutions. Print and electronic media provide publicity to public opinion, bring it to the attention of social institutions, which provide a platform for the exchange of views. As already noted, public opinion can be formed regarding only those phenomena and facts of social life that are informationally accessible to the community. The higher the awareness of the public, the more competent public opinion is. Formation of public opinion and her! utterances are two interrelated aspects of media activity.

The nature of the information received has a decisive influence on the content and dissemination of public opinion. It is no coincidence that they say that information rules the world. What the information will be depends not least on the media. Therefore, in the modern world, the role of the media in shaping public opinion is sharply increasing. It is known that even purely informational programs contain a disguised commentary, a hidden suggestion (sometimes its role is played by the very choice of an informational occasion). Getting information today has become as much a necessary human need as food. By "swallowing" the information offered by the media, we also receive a certain "dose" of suggestion.

Television plays a special role in this process. The secret of such a high influence of this type of media is due to several factors: first, TV shows are the most easy to understand; secondly, they create the effect of a person's personal presence at the scene; thirdly, according to psychologists, up to 40% of all sensory information about the world around a person receives with the help of sight. What a person sees in person usually does not require a verbal or written description. The information received by the viewer has a holistic, figurative character, and therefore is simple and generally accessible. It is also very important that television not only allows you to receive the necessary, relevant and effective information, but also organizes your free time, rest, entertainment. It shapes not only the tastes and needs of the population, but also its attitude to all political problems. However, since television, like other media, is under the control of political and economic elites and serves their interests, the media have turned from the rostrum of public opinion into a kind of regulator. Therefore, in recent years, an increasingly acute problem has arisen associated with the representativeness of public opinion in the materials of print and electronic media. With the help of the media, the powerful of this world direct the behavior of the masses in the direction they need. This is especially evident during the period of election campaigns. Modern media have become one of the main tools for manipulating public opinion. The use of the media for political manipulation today poses the greatest danger to citizens and the democratic state system. As noted Austrian philosopher Friedrich Hayek (1899-1984): “One of the saddest phenomena of our era is the massive democratic movement that advocates policies that inevitably lead to the destruction of democracy, and which can only benefit minorities among those who support this policy. "

Some stages of the process of the press moving away from the modest but understandable role of informing consumers about various events, and turning it into a tool for imposing certain opinions and assessments on this consumer, are described by Russian researcher Dmitry Volkov.

At the end of the 18th century. the press is for the first time called part of the social order. British politician and philosopher D. Wyork, speaking in parliament, said that "there are three powers; but the press gallery presents a fourth power, which is more important than each of them." But the rapid political and economic changes in Western European states and the rapid development of the institution of the press led to a rethinking of the concept of "fourth estate" or "fourth state", so that the press began to claim the role of "fourth estate" in the modern democratic structure of the political distribution of functions between the executive, representative And the judicial branches of government and already in the first half of the XIX century. American politician John Calone wrote: "Social thought and its organ - the press ... have already reached such a force in civilized countries that the governments of these countries are experiencing it - but this is nothing before the extent of their influence in the future." At the same time, he warned that “the press, instead of representing the interests of the whole, usually turns out to be an organ of separate groups of influence, or rather, parties. From them, it turns out to be a Tool in their hands to control public opinion and to change it in the interest of these groups. " And thirty years later, in 1880, Lord Acton wrote: "The power of journalism ... makes people act according to their own knowledge, but depending on the opinions of other people ... Almost everyone today gives their conscience and common sense to the institution outsiders. "

There is an opinion that it is much easier to study public opinion than to influence it. However, intelligently designed and skillfully implemented PR programs can change public opinion in a certain way. In this case, the following rules must be observed:

1) before trying to change public opinion, it must be identified and understood;

2) it is necessary to clearly define the target groups of the public;

3) specialists in the field of public relations should pay special attention to the laws of the formation of public opinion.

The renowned American PR specialist, social psychologist Hadley Kentril, in his work "Public Opinion Research" formulated 15 laws of public opinion.

1. Public opinion is extremely sensitive to significant events.

2. Unusually attractive events are capable of pushing public opinion from one extreme to another for some time. Public opinion does not stabilize until the meaning of the consequences of events becomes clear.

3. Public opinion, as a rule, is more quickly formed under the influence of events than words, at least until oral statements as such acquire the meaning of an event.

4. Oral statements and verbal formulations about a policy take on maximum weight when opinions are not yet formed and people expect some kind of interpretation from a credible source.

5. Public opinion in most cases "does not foresee" critical situations - it only reacts to them.

6. From a psychological point of view, public opinion is determined mainly by the selfish interests of people. Events, words and any other stimuli influence opinion as much as their connection with self-interest is obvious.

7. Public opinion will not remain “agitated” for a long time if people do not feel that their own interests are being affected, or the opinion formed by words is not confirmed by the development of events.

8. Public opinion is not easy to change because the vested interests of the people are affected.

9. When vested interests are involved, in a democratic society, public opinion can outpace the actions of the authorities.

10. If an opinion is shared by a small majority of people, or if it is not yet substantially structured, then a fait accompli may persuade public opinion to approve of it.

11. In critical situations, people become picky, assessing the competence of their leadership: if they trust him, then they are ready to give the management authority that exceeds normal; if they refuse to trust him, they become less tolerant.

12. Resistance to decisive action taken by management is much weaker when people feel that they too are involved in some way in decision-making.

13. People have more thoughts and a higher willingness to express them about the goals set, rather than the methods necessary to achieve these goals.

14. Public opinion, like personal, is always emotionally colored. If public opinion is based mainly on emotions, then it is ready for especially drastic changes under the influence of events.

15. If citizens of a democratic society have the opportunity to receive education and enjoy wide access to information, then public opinion is characterized by sobriety and common sense. The more people understand the benefits of events and the projects they offer, the sooner they agree with the more objective considerations of experts.

After reviewing these laws, several conclusions can be drawn:

a) a typical reaction to public opinion is the demand to act;

b) the impact on people will be much more effective if their interests are taken into account;

c) the requirements for management are not always objective;

d) it is difficult to determine the reliability of the assessment of public opinion.

One should beware of the dangerous situations that public opinion creates, as it is constantly changing. In assessing public opinion, consider several such situations.

"Carved in stone"... Many believe that if there is a strong public opinion on some issue, then it will not change soon. It is in vain to judge so unambiguously, because, evaluating public opinion, it is not always possible to arrive at the correct result. Moreover, public opinion at a certain moment is a very shaky thing.

"Intuition prompts"... If, say, the management of a company intuitively guesses that its employees are inclined to support a certain direction of policy, then it decides to follow this direction. However, it should be noted that you need to be careful here, since many managers are so disconnected from reality that their reflexive reaction to the problem often leads to imprudent actions.

"Unified Public Opinion"... There is public opinion, but there is no consensus in public opinion. Different social groups form public opinion, but it cannot be the same for them. Therefore, when influencing public opinion, messages must be targeted.

"You can move mountains with a word"... Here it is necessary to pay attention to the fact that “empty” words and statements will not help to influence public opinion. Supporters of the organization "green" ( Greenpeace) will stand up for the protection of animals for a very long time and try in vain to protect nature, until some event occurs that will turn the minds and ideas of people. It is not words that influence public opinion, but events. Evidence of this is the emerging negative attitude towards the United States on the part of the public. At first, the actions of this state were paid attention to (and, accordingly, they were condemned) by those countries that were affected by armed incursions under the motto of "fighting injustice." Now, any armed intervention by the United States in the affairs of another state is accompanied by rallies and processions around the world.

"Brotherly support"... Compassion for one's neighbor, "brother in misfortune" contributes to the formation of public opinion. Most people strongly protest when their kind is treated unfairly. But they will be even more decisive if they themselves were treated unfairly. For example, the recent events with the caricature of the Prophet Muhammad - the saint of all Muslims - confirm this. The offended believers rallied so much that a trial broke out in France. Although the process ended in favor of those who published the cartoons, this event united Muslim believers and encouraged them to take various actions (including illegal ones), thereby forming a certain public opinion. In other words, public opinion is often shaped by selfish interests.

Unfortunately, the ways to influence public opinion are not always fair. There are many propaganda techniques that are usually used to form a particular public opinion. Here are some of these techniques.

Assigning finished stamps... A person can be given a positive or negative characteristic. Someone can be called smart and honest, or a liar and a cheater. Such a "ready-made" characteristic can influence public opinion, since a person takes a person's characterization on faith. However, it also happens that the characteristic is left open, giving people the opportunity to draw their own conclusion about someone.

Vivid generalizations... Some events are very often characterized by vague emotional terms, such as "excited crowd" or "meeting of the greeters."

Shifting emphasis... This happens when, say, a famous athlete or pop star takes part in a campaign in support of a product or politician, while the aura of a famous person extends to a lesser known person or product.

Testimonials. Unlike the shift in focus technique, this technique is aimed at a certain emphasis of attention, for example, to stimulate sales to customers, it is reported that famous athletes, singers, actors and other celebrities use it.

Ordinary people... This is a favorite technique of politicians who, with the help of sentimental speeches, populist appeals, are trying to inspire the people with the idea that, despite their high positions, they, as before, remain "simple, of the people."

In the same boat... This technique is used in order to nudge undecided people at all costs to follow the majority. Although some researchers do not support this view, many TV companies do not report preliminary results of voting in different parts of the state on election day until polling stations are closed throughout the country, so as not to influence voters who have not yet voted.

Rigging... This technique is associated with discussing only one side of the event, highlighting facts that reflect only one point of view, and hushing up other facts or opinions. As a result, the essence of what is happening is distorted and incorrectly illuminated.

Emotional stereotypes... An image designed for emotional impact is used: "good owner", "homemaker", "foreigner", etc.

Forbidden silence... This is a subtle hint, assumption, innuendo and other forms associated with hiding information that can correct a wrong impression.

Subversive rhetoric... This technique is used to discredit the motives for action in order to discredit an idea that, in fact, can be good and useful. For example, in this way it is possible to discredit the zeal of a deputy to increase the salary of judges on the grounds that after the expiration of his term as a deputy, he will work as a judge, although such a measure is aimed at increasing the independence of judges and reducing corruption in the judiciary.

Such techniques are obvious, but their skillful application is invisible to others. Anyone who deals with communication can use oral, written and other propaganda techniques. Collectively, they can take the form of synthetic events.

In the work of PR specialists (especially when it comes to attracting the media to implement programs to influence public opinion), methods are used by which people are misled. Such events do not always have a negative impact on public opinion. In the skillful and, most importantly, the right hands, these tools of influence can be used to positively change the attitudes and behavior of people in a constructive direction. The only question is whether moral norms and civil rights of a person are violated.