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Uncovering the metaphysics of psychological warfare: The social science behind the Psychological Strategy Board's operations planning, 1951–1953
Author(s) -
Kemmis Gabrielle
Publication year - 2019
Publication title -
journal of the history of the behavioral sciences
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.216
H-Index - 26
eISSN - 1520-6696
pISSN - 0022-5061
DOI - 10.1002/jhbs.22018
Subject(s) - psychological science , government (linguistics) , task (project management) , gray (unit) , psychological research , cold war , psychology , on board , metaphysics , public relations , sociology , political science , management , politics , law , social psychology , engineering , medicine , linguistics , philosophy , epistemology , economics , radiology , aerospace engineering
Abstract In April 1951 president Harry S. Truman established the Psychological Strategy Board to enhance and streamline America's sprawling psychological warfare campaign against the USSR. As soon as the Board's staff began work on improving US psychological operations, they wondered how social science might help them achieve their task. Board Director, Gordon Gray, asked physicist turned research administrator Henry Loomis to do a full review of America's social science research program in support of psychological operations. Loomis willingly accepted the task. This paper documents Loomis's investigation into America's social science research program. It uncovers the critical role that government departments had in the creation of research in the early 1950s and thus highlights that the government official is an important actor in the history of social science and the application of social science to psychological operations at the beginning of the Cold War.