# # 54. Group Manipulation ## 54.5. Methodology/Refinements/Sub-species ### 54.5.1. Crowd manipulation This is the use of techniques based on the principles of crowd psychology to engage, control, or influence the desires of a crowd, in order to direct its behaviour toward a specific action. This practice is common to politics and business and can facilitate the approval, disapproval or indifference to a person, a policy, or a product by a crowd. Whether there are any ethical uses of crowd manipulation is debatable. Comparison with propaganda: Crowd manipulation differs from propaganda, although they may reinforce one another to produce a desired result. Propaganda can be defined as a consistent, enduring effort to create or shape events to influence the relations of the public to an enterprise, idea or group. But crowd manipulation is a relatively short call to action once the seeds of propaganda have been sown, and the public is organised into a crowd. A propagandist appeals to everyone in a population over a longish period of time (weeks, months or years). The crowd manipulator appeals to a particular segment of the masses assembled in a crowd in real time. In situations such as a national emergency, a political manipulator may use methods of mass media to address and incite the general public as if speaking directly to a crowd. Crowd manipulation differs from "crowd control". Crowd control serves as a security function. Local authorities use crowd control techniques to contain and defuse crowds and to prevent and respond to unruly and unlawful acts such as rioting and looting.