Cognitive warfare

This article may require copy editing for grammar, style, cohesion, tone, or spelling. You can assist by editing it. (October 2024) (Learn how and when to remove this message)

Cognitive warfare (CW) consists of any military activities, conducted in synchronization with other instruments of power,^[jargon] affecting attitudes and behaviours, by influencing, protecting, or disrupting individual, group, or population level cognition, to gain an advantage over an adversary.^[1][2] It is an extension of form of information warfare using propaganda and disinformation.^[1]

NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization) General Paolo Ruggiero distinguishes it from other information-related activities by its objectives: "Its goal is not what individuals think, but rather, the way they think."^{[3][better source needed]} Cognitive warfare refers to the way that human thought, reasoning, sense-making, decision-making, and behaviour may be engineered through not only the manipulation of information, but also by the A.I./ML network of algorithms which push information through the internet.^[1] Other methods of Cognitive Warfare include the targeted use of inaudible sound waves (frequency of <20 Hz) and microwaves to incapacitate enemy forces by disrupting the neurological functions of human targets without causing visible injury.^[4][5][6] According to the U.S. National Institute of Health, Infrasound’s effect on the human inner ear includes “vertigo, imbalance, intolerable sensations, incapacitation, disorientation, nausea, vomiting, and bowel spasm; and resonances in inner organs, such as the heart."^[4][5]

According to Masakowski, cognitive warfare is an extension of information warfare (IW).^{[1][better source needed]} Operations in the information environment are traditionally conducted in five core capabilities - electronic warfare (EW), psychological operations (PSYOPs), military deception (MILDEC), operational security (OPSEC), and computer network operations (CNO).^[3][7] Information warfare aims at controlling the flow of information in support of traditional military objectives, mainly to produce lethal effects on the battlefield.^{[3][better source needed]} According to Masakowski & NATO Gen Ruggiero, cognitive warfare degrades the capacity to know and produce foreknowledge, transforming the understanding and interpretations of situations by individuals and in the mass consciousness, and has multiple agnostic applications including commercial, political and covert IW and CW military operations.^[1][3] The Chinese military refers to operations in the cognitive domain as 'cognitive domain operations (CDO)'.^[8]

Using a psychological and psychographic profile, an influence campaign can be created and adjusted in real time by A.I. ML models until desired cognitive and behaviour affects on the individual and/or population are achieved.^{[9][better source needed]} U.S. Army and Marine Corps counterinsurgency strategy calls for the use of automated biometric systems to separate insurgents and foreign fighters from the general population.^[10] In doing so, this helps counterinsurgents leverage the population and operational environment against the threat network.^[10]

Decades of peer-reviewed research show that echo chambers, in the physical world and online, cause political polarization,^[11] extremism, confusion, cognitive dissonance, negative emotional responses (e.g. anger and fear), reactance, microaggressions, and third-person effects.^{[12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24][excessive citations][verification needed]}

And because of these psychological perseverance mechanisms like confirmation bias, this can be very problematic based on the work of Nyhan & Reifler (2010). Nyhan & Reifler found that even attempting to correct false beliefs often reinforces rather than dispels these beliefs among those who hold them most strongly. This is known as the backfire effect – "in which corrections actually increase misperceptions."^{[25][26][27][28]}

According to Masakowski, the objectives of cognitive warfare are to shape/control and enemy's cognitive thinking and decision-making; to manipulate and degrade a nation's values, emotions, national spirit, cultural traditions, historical beliefs, political will; to achieve adversarial strategic geopolitical objectives without fighting; to influence human/societal reasoning, thinking, emotions, et al. aligned with specific objectives; and to degrade a populations trust in their institutions.^{[1] [verification needed][better source needed]} In doing so, Masakowski claims that this allows for the weakening/distruption of military, political & societal cohesion; and undermining/threatening of democracy.^{[1][verification needed][better source needed]} Masakowski alleges that cognitive warfare has also been used by authoritarian societies to restructure society and groom populations to accept "continuous surveillance" and that this allows these authoritarian societies to "remove individuals/outliers who resist and insist on freedom of speech, independent thinking, etc."^{[1][verification needed][better source needed]}