THE INVASION FROM MARS:HADLEY CANTRIL’S

A Study in the Psychology of Panic

Del Castillo. Duenas. Gurango. Majam. Pascual

- Born in Utah.- he was educated at Dartmouth College and

received his Ph.D. from Harvard. - He joined the faculty of Princeton during 1936

and later became chairman of Princeton University Department of Psychology.

- He was a member of the Princeton Radio Research Project - The main author of The Invasion from Mars.

HADLEY CANTRIL

- Cantril's later psychological work included collaboration with Adelbert Ames, Jr. most important work concerned the then-new topic of Public Opinion research.

- During 1940 he initiated Princeton University's Office of Public Opinion Research.

- During 1955 he initiated the Institute for International Social Research with Lloyd A. Free.

- Cantril's most-cited work is The Pattern of Human Concerns.

- During the late 1950s, Cantril served on the International Objectives and Strategies panel of the Rockefeller Brothers' Special Studies Project.

worksSocial Psychology of Everyday Life, 1934 The Psychology of Radio (with Gordon Allport), 1935 Industrial Conflict: a Psychological Interpretation, 1939 The Invasion from Mars, a Study in the Psychology of Panic, 1940 America Faces the War, a Study in Public Opinion, 1940 Psychology of Social Movements, 1941 Gauging Public Opinion, 1944 Psychology of ego-involvements : social attitudes & identifications, 1947 Why's of man's experience, 1950 Tensions that cause wars (a report for UNESCO), 1950 Public Opinion, 1935–1946, 1951

How Nations See Each Other, a study in public opinion, 1953 Perception: a Transactional Approach, 1954 On Understanding the French Left, 1956 Faith, Hope, and Heresy: the Psychology of the Protest Voter, 1958 Politics of Despair, 1958 Reflections on the Human Venture, 1960 Soviet Leaders and Mastery over Man, 1960 Human Nature and Political Systems, 1961 Pattern of Human Concerns, 1965 Political beliefs of Americans; a study of public opinion, 1967 The Human Dimension: Experiences in Policy Research, 1967 Psychology, Humanism, and Scientific Inquiry: the Selected Essays of Hadley Cantril, 1988 (posthumously)

- Born May 6, 1915, in Kenosha, Wisconsin, died October 10, 1985, Los Angeles- Married three times and had children with each wife- American motion-picture actor, director, producer, and writer.- In film, he left his artistically indelible mark with such films as

Citizen Kane, and The Magnificent Ambersons.- Welles learned to play the piano and the violin- Maurice Bernstein was Orson’s guardian- His stage debut was made at the Gate Theatre, Dublin- he organized a drama festival at Woodstock- he formed the Mercury Theatre

Orson Welles

Citizen Kane (1941)The Magnificent Ambersons (1942)The Stranger (1946)The Lady from Shanghai (1947) Macbeth (1948)Touch of Evil (1958)Le Procs (1962; The Trial)Campanadas a medianoche (1966;Chimes at Midnight)Othello (1952)Mr. Arkadin (1955)F for Fake

works

EFFECT OF THE ORSON WELLES BROADCAST…

• The Great Depression and the looming danger from Europe created a social situation in which made the broadcast more believable and frightening.

• At this point, people felt very vulnerable and anxious.• People had been suffering by almost a decade of economic

downturn.• People felt on edge as Hitler pushed Europe to another war

(at that point in time) in which technology would be used for destruction.

• Hence making the impact of the broadcast more powerful than it might have in any other time in history.

…IN RELATION TO THE GREAT DERPRESSION

• The radio at that time was an extremely important medium of communication as well as entertainment.

• The radio was also used by government officials and even President Franklin Roosevelt to broadcast important announcements or messages to the masses.

• The voice in the broadcast was closely related to President Roosevelt’s voice which caused the people to panic immediately.

• This also led to people to not question the broadcast’s credibility since they regularly listened for President Roosevelt’s announcements.

• The broadcast made people more aware of the power of suggestibility.

• It caused mass hysteria but people never bothered to check for authenticity; making the radio business more sensitive to what they air.

• Radio was still used for various purposes but people demanded that other programs be aired.

• Development of radio programs happened.• Journalism business became more prominent.

SOCIAL AND CULTURAL DEVELOPMENTAL EFFECTS

• - is the quality of being inclined to accept and - act on the suggestions of others.-the extent to which a person is able to accept suggestion, which varies according to one's state of mind. The greater the suggestibility that an individual is experiencing, the greater the effect that suggestions offered will have upon that person's perceptions of reality.(Cal Banyan)

Suggestibility

LISTENER CLASSIFICATION

1. Those who checked the internal evidence of the broadcast

2. Those who checked the broadcastagainst other information and learned that it was a play

3. Those who tried to check the program against other information but who, for various reasons, continued to believe the Broadcast was an authentic news report.

4. Those who made no attempt to check the broadcast or the event

• Broadcast=> serious affair- As in all other panics, the individual

believed his well-being , his safety, or his life was at stake.

• Ego• To gain emotional security

Why such extreme behavior?

The extreme behavior evoked by the broadcast was due to the enormous felt ego-involvement the situation created and to the complete inability to alleviate or control the consequences of the invasion

• Anxiety and fear revealed by the panic were latent in the general population, not specific to the persons who happened to participate in it.

• It has shown that “The course of world history has affected national psychology” (Broun, 1938)

• Americans have experienced not just war, but problems such as consequent unemployment, low and insecure income, widespread feelings of insecurity, etc. which is why they were easily

SOCIAL SIGNIFICANCE

bewildered and disturbed therefore, failing to fully understand the situation.

• Education => one of the greatest preventives of panic behavior.

SUMMARY

Four psychological conditions: • Those who rejected the Martian story from internal

evidence. E.g. people questioned the story's claim that military units had arrived as rapidly as reported.

• Those who checked up on the story and found it was false. E.g. they turned to another radio station and found no panicking voices.

• Those who unsuccessfully checked the story.• Those who made no attempt to check the story.

CONCLUSION• The ability of man to orient himself

appropriately in critical situations will be increased if he can be taught to adopt an attitude of readiness to question the interpretations he hears

• But when he achieves this healthy skepticism, one must have the relevant knowledge to be able to evaluate different interpretations

• Hadley Cantril. http://www.enotes.com/topic/Hadley_Cantril• Orson Welles. • http://www.biography.com/people/orson-welles-9527363?page=

2

http://www.notablebiographies.com/Tu-We/Welles-Orson.html#ixzz1dtgLus00

• Effects.• Esaytree.com/American-history/war-of-the-worlds• http://radio.about.com/od/historicalradioshows/a/WarOfTheWorl

ds.htm• http://www.war-ofthe-worlds.co.uk/war_worlds_orson_welles_m

ercury.htm• http://www.press.uchicago.edu/Misc/Chicago/471921.html• http://www.enotes.com/history/q-and-a/how-does-war-worlds-br

oadcast-1938-relate-social-277897

REFERENCES

• Listener Classificationhttp://chesler.us/resources/links/Cantril.pdf

Thank You for Listening!