Rumors and Propaganda Broadcast On Radio Aid Axis, Allport Thinks

"Although few of the rumors that we have been hearing since the beginning of the war actually originated in Berlin," Gordon W. Allport, associate professor of Psychology stated yesterday, "all of them play right into the hands of enemy agents who, with the help of German propaganda, are constantly trying to infuse untrue reports to destroy our national unity."

Surveys have shown that about 10 percent of the radio audience in this country, or nearly seven million people, listen frequently to foreign short wave programs. Professor Allport stated, "Of these, only a few believe what they hear," he said," but there are those who even though they do no attach much importance to the broadcasts themselves, pass on to other people what they have heard. Thus they get a feeling of importance in letting others knew that they have been listening to foreign stations."

Information For Agents

Among those who listen to broadcasts there are a few enemy agents in this country who derive from Nazi propaganda the cues for rumors that will tend to foster disunity among citizens. Professor Allport revealed. On of the best ways to run down enemy agents, he observed, is to ascertain the districts where rumors are most prevalent, and then try, if possible, to discover who is responsible for them.

"We have fairly definite proof. Allport revealed," that enemy agents are often given information by propaganda broadcasts. Every once in a while we hear a queer sounding program that isn't the usual sort of propaganda." As an example of this practice, Allport told of a program recently broadcasted from Berlin, describing in detail a track meet. This may well have been a code message, he believed, addressed to spies in America.

Rumor Experiment Here

To determine the effect of rumor and find out of what extent students in the University accept the official reports of the war, an experiment was conducted within the College by Robert K. Knapp, teaching fellow in Psychology, who gave a carefully constructed "propaganda" test to a number of students.

The results, which have just been tabulated, revealed that on February 20, before President Roosevelt's speech to the nation, 140 students of these tested believed that the damage done to the Pacific Fleet at Pearl Harbor was greater than revealed in Secretary Knox's report. Only 4 per cent believed it to be less.

The investigation was repeated again on February 26 with another representative group of students. During the interval since the last questionnaire, the President, in his speech on the 22nd, had given the public the final account of the damage. The results from the second test, when tabulated, revealed that 48 percent still believed that the damage was greater than reported.