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The Invasion from Mars: A Study in the Psychology of Panic

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Hadley Cantril was chairman of the Institute for international Social Research: his Invasion From Mars: A Study In The Psychology Of Panic originally appeared in 1940 but remains a modern classic even in its reprint edition over fifty years later. The focus on the lasting effects of Orson Welles' radio adaptation of the fantasy War of the Worlds explores how radio could have such an effect - and how people judged the accuracy of what they were hearing on the radio.

Here's a quote from "America Under Attack: A Reassessment of Orson Welles War of the Worlds" by Paul Heyler of Willfrid Laurier University:

"A grant from the Rockefeller Foundation to Princeton University helped create the Princeton Office of Radio Research. The director was Paul Lazersfeld, an Austrian Jewish emigre and a social psychologist whose expertise in quantitative methods was tempered by a humanist leaning. He teamed with two associates, psychologist Hadley Cantrell and CBS researcher Fred Stanton, a PhD in psychology who would eventually become network president." (CBS=C.I.A. assett)

The broadcast was a psychological warfare experiment conducted by The Princeton Radio Project. The Rockefeller Foundation funded the project in the fall of 1937. An Office of Radio Research was set up with Paul F. Lazersfeld as director, and Frank Stanton and Hadley Cantrell as associate directors. Using demographic data on the broadcast's audience gleaned from a 10-page interview questionnaire given to 135 people, they created a book, "The Invasion From Mars: A Study in the Psychology of Panic."

That speaks volumes!