fear tactics
Threatening to coerce
Fear tactics are methods of persuasion that rely on frightening people into a desired belief or action.
Politicians use fear tactics to rally support against opponents; advertisers use them to sell security systems or insurance.
The approach appeals to anxiety rather than reason: The campaign relied on fear tactics about immigration to energize voters.
Also called scare tactics.
- intimidationDeliberate fear-inducing pressure
- fearmongeringDeliberately spreading exaggerated threats
- propagandaBiased information for influence
- witch huntPersecuting supposed wrongdoers
- coercionPressured compliance through threats
threat · terror alert · censorship · big brother · guilt-tripping · authoritarianism · strongman politics · scapegoating · demonization · dog whistle · divide and conquer · moral panic · emotional blackmail · secret police · peer pressure · surveillance · alarmism · torture
- Dystopia1984, Nineteen Eighty-Four, dystopian fiction, totalitarianism, Brave New World
- intimidationthreats, threatening, menacing, intimidate, bullying
- sales tacticsupselling, cross-selling, hard sell, soft sell, high pressure
- coercionduress, coercing, compelling, threat, forcing
- demagogueryrabble-rousing, fearmongering, scapegoating, pandering, incitement
- fearmongeringscaremongering, fearmongering, alarmism, panic spreading, doomsaying
fear tacticsscientific reasoning
Methodical analysis from evidence
Socratic dialogue · dialectic · logos · critical analysis · informed consent
fear tacticsgood faith argument