The persuaders job is to create the problem in the audience's perception so that they feel a threat exists, a wrong should be righted, a "bad" should be corrected, a flaw should be repaired: "There's a problem which threatens me; it can be changed; I ought to do something; I'm able to, I want to, and I will."

Many people "don't know they have a problem," until persuaders create it for them; that is, persuaders can give an audience a new insight into an existing situation so that the audience becomes more keenly aware of both the existing realities and the ideal possibilities. Consider the women's movement in the the 1970s, for example: a situation (unequal pay, job discrimination, etc.) had existed for a long time, but not many people saw it as a problem (something that shouldn't be, and that could be changed) until there was a great deal of "consciousness raising" by feminists.

Some people have vague anxieties and free-floating anger. "Something's wrong," they think, but they can't put their finger on why they feel dissatisfied or discontented, fearful or angry. Working on this kind of audience, skilled persuaders can stimulate these feelings, channel them and offer solutions. Persuaders want to move an audience from a position of ignorance, unconcern, and apathy to that of knowledge, concern, and action.

Thus, persuaders are often problem makers: creating dissonances, stirring up emotions, getting the adrenaline flowing. Or when the tensions and the emotions are already high, the persuaders are concerned with directing and channeling, suggesting problems and offering solutions.

Intensifying the seriousness of the danger, the magnitude of the problem, and the urgency of the situation are common techniques. The greater the problem, the more the need for the solution. In reality, some things are very dangerous, but recognize also that persuaders usually tend to overstate the danger. Whether saving souls from hellfire, or saving seals from extinction, persuaders know that the greater the threat is intensified, the greater is the need for their remedy.

Accidental arousal of fears is possible, a "wildfire effect." Many racial and ethnic conflicts, for example, have been spontaneous and unplanned; crises have occurred by accident, triggered haphazardly by unpremeditated acts. But such randomness is different, both in kind and degree, from an organized propaganda campaign such as Hitler's persecution of the Jews.

Deliberate, systematic, and intentional manipulation of human fears and hatreds is also possible. Today, because of technological advances, the potential danger is far greater than ever in the past. Today, persuaders with the intent to manipulate have better tools to do so, to communicate messages quickly. The psychological techniques are more sophisticated to identify what people fear, as are the methods to target audiences precisely and to deliver messages to them instantly and constantly.

The commercialization of creating problems and stirring up fears may be the most significant recent development.

As Lawrence Noble pointed out, these are "Ads that make you open your wallet": "... consider the purpose behind these ads. They are not primarily intended to persuade the undecided. They are aimed at rallying the faithful — and getting them to open their wallets.

Political fundraising by advocacy groups has become a full-time business here in Washington, and nothing is better for business than an all-out political brawl. The hotter the issue and the more dramatic the pitch, the more money can be raised. The fact that this may not be a good way for a democracy to decide complex issues matters little.

The need to raise money to wage ideological warfare, while energizing supporters, often leads to the selling of a mind-numbing cartoon version of reality. That, in turn, polarizes Americans, which motivates the base still more. In this way, political advertising accentuates the nation's partisan divide."

Talk-radio shows, for example, also earn big money by providing advertisers with big audiences by hosts who are constantly stirring up emotions, fears and hatreds, by "making problems."

The "warning alert" of a threat can be made by an official leader of an established group or it can be made unofficially by anyone ("self-appointed"), or by an outsider, someone from a counter-group seeking to re-form a group.

If we wish to praise these warning-givers, we can call them "patriots" or "prophets"; if we wish to attack them, we can call them "rabble-rousers" or "agitators."

Within or outside the established order, warning-givers point out a threat to intensify the danger or the evils involved, usually try to blame these problems on one identifiable person or group, the scapegoat, on which all of the fears and hatreds can be focused. The warning about a present danger is usually built upon a past history, an accumulation of fears and hatreds, a series of charges, a list of grievances.

Many social animals have warning cries to alert the group to danger. Humans have a much more sophisticated warning system because we perceive so many different kinds of danger. At the simplest level, we have some very explicit warning words (beware, danger, look out, be careful, be alert, attention, watch out) and we can also warn others by using simple sounds and sights (cries, yells, sirens, whistles, bells, flashing lights, waving flags).

But most of our more sophisticated warnings also involve (as they will be called here, in the threat) "name-calling," "horror stories," and "atrocity pictures."

To an audience of Haves, conservative persuaders often stir up fears and anxieties of loss; to an audience of Have-Nots, progressive persuaders often stir up discontent and dissatisfaction with an existing "bad," or anger and resentment for being deprived of a "good."

In current jargon, among professional political operatives on both sides, this is called "energizing the base" of one's own supporters. Informally, one hears cynical remarks: "let's stir up the troops," "let's push their buttons," "let's rattle their cages" or "throw them some meat." Sometimes this is called rabble-rousing, but "energizing the base" sounds nicer.

In commercial advertising, such problem-making (and the problem/solution pattern) is here called the scare-and-sell technique.

In "cause group" rhetoric, such problem-making is part of the threat.