“I HAVE A message for my Russian friends, and for the Russian soldiers serving in Ukraine: There are things going on in the world that have been kept from you, terrible things that you should know about. But before I tell you about the harsh realities, let me tell you about the Russian who became my hero.”
This is how actor, politician, bodybuilder and pop culture icon Arnold Schwarzenegger began his speech in a recent viral video, directed at the Russian people. Schwarzenegger released the video across all of his social media channels in mid-March, three weeks after the invasion of Ukraine by Russia.
The video was posted with the caption ‘I love the Russian people. That is why I have to tell you the truth. Please watch and share’, and quickly racked up millions of views and hundreds of thousands of shares.
In the video, Schwarzenegger attempts to cut through the propaganda of the Russian government and state media to highlight atrocities carried out in Ukraine, and to persuade ordinary Russians to turn away from their government’s narrative and see the war for what it really is.
But how effective is the video at achieving this aim? And is it a useful way to combat misinformation?
The video
Schwarzenegger begins the nine minute-long video by speaking about his love for Russia, and the Russian weightlifter Yury Petrovich Vlasov, who he idolised as a young man and later met.
From here, the famous actor speaks about his respect and admiration for Russia and its people, and mentions how his own father fought against the Russians in Leningrad for Nazi Germany, comparing the lies his father was told at the time to the lies being told to Russian soldiers today.
Schwarzenegger then attempts to debunk some of the most common Russian government propaganda about the war. He highlights how Russia is the aggressor and is becoming increasingly isolated due to its actions, and he lists a number of atrocities carried out in Ukraine.
He repeatedly mentions how it is the Russian government – and not ordinary citizens or soldiers – who are responsible for the war. He also directly addresses Russian president Vladimir Putin, calling on him to stop the war.
The actor then urges “the Russian people and the Russian soldiers in Ukraine to understand the propaganda and the disinformation that you are being told”.
“I ask you to help me spread the truth so that your fellow Russians will know the human catastrophe that is happening in Ukraine.”
The response
The video quickly went viral across the major social media platforms – Twitter, Facebook, TikTok, Snapchat – many of which are blocked in Russia. Notably, Schwarzenegger and his team also released the video on Telegram, the instant messaging app widely used in Russia, in an attempt to reach people directly.
The video was hailed by politicians and media commentators in the West as an effective way to combat the Russian state line. It was also highlighted positively by Russian opposition figures.
On Telegram, Russian opposition politician Lev Shlosberg said it had been filmed “with respect towards us, Russian people”.
“Arnold Schwarzenegger has a unique ability to talk to anyone with persuasion, respect and on equal terms. Wits, power and justice. Have a listen. Think about it. Understand,” Shlosberg said.
Angie Drobnic Holan, editor-in-chief of PolitiFact, the US-based factchecking organisation, called the video a “master class in how to get people to reconsider their views”.
Holan listed a number of things that Schwarzenegger “got right” in the video. These include starting in a friendly way, humanising yourself to the audience, using simple language, letting people know you care about them on a human level, and not getting bogged down in overcomplicated evidence.
“It remains to be seen whether his video reaches everyday Russians through the internet or other channels, even in the face of censorship by the Russian government,” Hoban said.
“But if it does, he has spoken in a way that people will be able to hear what he has to say.”
Effectiveness
According to Shane Timmons, Research Officer with the Behavioural Research Unit (BRU) of the ESRI, Schwarzenegger’s attempt to make himself familiar with Russians could be effective in getting people to trust him.
“He highlights the similarities between him and the Russian people. We do know that the source of the information is important for people’s receptivity towards it,” Timmons told The Journal.
“That people believe information more strongly if they like the source of it. So from that perspective, the video does seem quite good.”
However, Timmons said that this can be less effective if people are forewarned that someone is trying to persuade them.
“There is research showing that the source of information is less effective if people are forewarned of the persuasion attempt.
“So essentially if people consuming the video are aware that there’s an intent here to persuade me about something, then that can kind of put a psychological barrier up.”
For this reason, Schwarzenegger’s status as a famous celebrity and familiar face may be blunted somewhat if people watching the video are wary that he is trying to change their minds.
“So the effect of a likeable source on people’s willingness to accept information is less strong if people expect that someone is trying to persuade them of something and it’s something that people already feel quite strongly about,” Timmons said.
“From that perspective, [the approach] might be less effective, despite it kind of coming out of a textbook on how you persuade people.”
Emotional argument
Timmons also points out that by appealing to emotion rather than focusing on facts, or prompting Russians to consider the information they are being shown, Schwarzenegger’s video may be less effective at combating misinformation.
“There is research showing that when people are in heightened emotional states their susceptibility to fake news or misinformation actually increases,” he said.
“So the recommended strategy for people to reflect on information and accuracy is to get them to go into that more cerebral, reflective state, rather than an emotional one.”
This could be done by nudging people to consider whether a claim is true or false to analyse something themselves.
“So, prompting people to consider the accuracy of something, to get them to slow down and think, is this something likely to be accurate? That tends to be more effective than trying to heighten emotions.”
Reaching Russians
There is also no way of quantifying how many Russians actually saw Schwarzenegger’s video in the first place.
The video was shared widely across all social media platforms. However, since the beginning of the war, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram have all been restricted or banned in Russia, and TikTok banned new posts being uploaded in early March.
Schwarzenegger’s use of Telegram was highlighted as an effective way to increase the reach of his video in Russia. There are an estimated 38 million monthly users of Telegram in Russia.
According to an analysis by Sotrender, a Poland-based analytics website, the video received most of its views and engagements in the Western world. However, the analysis found that within a few days of being posted on Telegram, the video had 800,000 views and was forwarded more than 33,000 times.
The video was shared by a large number of Russian and Ukrainian channels, and received relatively high engagement, which means it may have reached a significant number of people in Russia. However, views on Telegram were far outnumbered by the views across the traditional social media platforms.
Schwarzenegger did draw the ire of Kremlin-backed state TV, however, with a number of programmes and hosts criticising him, showing that the video may have reached enough Russians to provoke a response.
What works
Due to the extreme uncertainty and polarisation of wars, and extensive propaganda campaigns by warring nations, they are hotbeds of misinformation.
“We know that uncertainty is something that breeds scope for misinformation. I mean, we saw that during the early stages of the pandemic as well,” said Timmons.
Some of the best approaches to tackling misinformation can be “pre-bunking” or trying to inoculate people against it.
“That’s trying to teach people the methods that are used to spread misinformation and the hallmarks of it.
“That can be kind of effective, but it tends to be an opt-in thing. So you have to kind of want to be inoculated against misinformation and the people who want to be inoculated against it are usually the people who need to be inoculated less.”
In cases like the beginning of the pandemic, where there is a large gap in information, an effective approach can be “crowd-sourced” fact checking of the information.
This would entail getting thousands of people (in a social media setting, for example) to rate how accurate they believe the information to be.
“So if you have thousands of people rate how accurate it is you will obviously have some groups of people who will rate false information as completely accurate for whatever their reasons,” said Timmons.
“But if you have enough people you can use the wisdom of crowds to differentiate between things that are judged highly accurate and those that are not.”
This work is co-funded by Journal Media and a grant programme from the European Parliament. Any opinions or conclusions expressed in this work are the author’s own. The European Parliament has no involvement in nor responsibility for the editorial content published by the project. For more information, see here.
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