Foot-in-the-door technique and propaganda in Nazi Germany

In 1933, Adolf Hitler gained official control of Germany following a win in that year’s elections (Wistrich, 1997). Hitler’s control involved creating a “master race” of people and eliminating those who’s appearances and ideas strayed from the characteristics of this race. The major target to eliminate in Nazi Germany was the Jewish community. How did one man convince a vast majority of a population to support the destruction of another group?

He understood the foot-in-the-door phenomenon/technique and applied it to his cause. The foot-in-the-door phenomenon/technique works by convincing “people to comply to a critical request by first obtaining COMPLIANCE to a minor request” (Manstead, & Hewstone, 1999). He used a long series of requests presented in the media to the German people until he got the result he was looking for. His idea was that there was only one “master race”, and the other races were holding this one back. He needed to remove or annihilate these “lesser races”. And what was the first request?

Hitler needed the German people to first believe that the Jewish people were bad. The Jewish people have committed an evil act against the German nation just by existing and taking up jobs and other precious resources. Once this is completed, which wasn’t difficult to do due to the economic turmoil Germany was left in following WWI, then he had to convince the people of Germany that the Jewish people should be shunned by them. Boycotts of Jewish shops are instigated, and Jewish students are no longer allowed to attend school (Timeline). He enforced laws forcing Jews to wear a yellow badge bearing the Star of David and the word “Jude”. These actions made a clear distinction between the Jewish people and the rest of Germany. After these actions, it wasn’t difficult to keep the “German citizens” from opposing the internment of hundreds of thousands of Jews, and other minorities, in concentration camps.

Hitler made large use of the media to convince the German people that his beliefs should be theirs. Magazines, newspapers, radio, television (occuring later for those able to afford it), and public speeches were filled with anti-Semitism. This massive amount of propaganda aided in changing the beliefs of an entire nation. If the media hadn’t been as available and had Germany not been suffering major economic hardships, then it is possible that Hitler would not have become as powerful as quickly if he were able to become powerful at all.

There are ways of avoiding this in the future. People need to be educated on persuasion and the techniques used. They need to be able to recognize what is happening so they may predict a future event. If the German people had seen that Hitler was actually changing their beliefs in such a way earlier on in his dictatorship, then there may have been more opposition and a possible overthrow of the government.

Citations

Manstead, A.S.R., & Hewstone, M. (1999). Foot-in-the-Door.
The Blackwell encyclopedia of social psychology. Oxford,
U.K. ; Cambridge, Mass.: Blackwell Publishers.

Timeline. Compiled from various, unspecified sources. http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Holocaust/Chronology_1933.html

Wistrich, R.S. (1997). Who's who in nazi germany. Retrieved from http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Holocaust/hitler.html