PsyOps

17,605 readers

~3 users here now

PsyOps (Psychological Operations)

Psychological operation: a unit of psyological warfare hostile to other people to trick them.

Psychological operations convey selected information and indicators to audiences to influence their emotions, motives, and objective reasoning, and ultimately the behavior of governments, organizations, groups, and individuals.

https://en.Wikipedia.org/wiki/Psychological_operations_(United_States)

PsyOps are closely related to /s/Gaslighting, /s/propaganda, /s/Illusions, Social/Cultural Engineering, and PsyWar.

Psychological warfare (PSYWAR)

or the basic aspects of modern psychological operations, aka MISO, Psy Ops, political warfare, "Hearts and Minds", and propaganda. PsyWar is used "to denote any action which is practiced mainly by psychological methods with the aim of evoking a planned psychological reaction in other people". The various techniques used are aimed at influencing a target audience's value system, belief system, emotions, motives, reasoning, or behavior. It's used to reinforce attitudes and behaviors favorable to the originator's objectives, induce confessions, are sometimes combined with black operations or false flag tactics, and to destroy the morale of enemies through tactics that aim to depress troops' psychological states. Not limited to soldiers, governments, organizations, groups, individuals, and civilians of domestic or foreign territories can be audiences targeted by technology and media causing widespread effects in their country and government.

https://en.Wikipedia.org/wiki/Psychological_warfare

Social engineering (social science)

is a disciplined effort to influence particular attitudes and social behaviors on a large scale, whether by governments, media, or private groups in order to produce desired characteristics in a target population. It can also be understood philosophically as a deterministic phenomenon realizing the intentions and goals of the architects of the new social construct. Social engineers analyze and understand social systems in order to design the appropriate methods to achieve the desired results in the human subjects.

https://en.Wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_engineering_(political_science)

Unlike social engineering (social science), social engineering (information security) concerns divulging confidential information and/or "any act that influences a person to take an action that may or may not be in their best interests."

Social engineering (info security)

is the psychological manipulation of people into performing actions or divulging confidential information. A type of confidence trick for the purpose of information gathering, fraud, or system access, it differs from a traditional "con" in that it is often one of many steps in a more complex fraud scheme.

https://en.Wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_engineering_(security)

What is Social Engineering? Examples & Prevention Tips

Related: