Bernard Reuben Berelson was an American behavioral scientist, known for his work on communication and mass media. He was a leading proponent of the broad idea of the "behavioral sciences", a field he saw as including areas such as public opinion. In Chapter 14 of Voting, he enunciated what has become known as Berelson's paradox on democracy: while classical theories of its success assume voters committed to interest in public life, this fails to correspond with practical politics, while the system itself functions. Berelson wrote a summary entitled The Great Debate on Cultural Democracy regarding the confrontation between mass society theorists and researchers for the media industries. Berelson asserted that the resolution of the debate was simple: just listen to mass communication researchers like himself as they develop useful answers to the issues raised by others.
In recent years a 1969 memo written by Frederick S. Jaffe has been a source of controversy. The memo, written to Berelson while he was head of the Population Council, included a table that summarized many proposals from various sources regarding population control. This table contained proposals such as compulsory abortions and sterilizations, encouraging homosexuality, forcing women to work, and other notions that no one would imagine an organization like Planned Parenthood would be associated with. In point of fact, however, Jaffe's table was included in a report by a Planned Parenthood official that worked for Jaffe, that said "The report was prepared in behalf of Planned Parenthood's Population Education Staff Committee as a basis for discussion of and action on the U.S. population problem by the Planned Parenthood national organization." Furthermore, just two years later, Berelson and Jaffe would work together on the 1972 Rockefeller Commission Report. Many of the ideas discussed in the memorandum were incorporated into the Rockefeller Report. So, while it is true that Jaffe's memorandum was primarily for purposes of laying out options for discussion, it is not true that Jaffe, Berelson, or Planned Parenthood, had no intention of acting on those proposals. Critics contend that the value of the memo is in revealing the lengths that population control advocates, including Berelson and Jaffe, were willing to go. The original memorandum is available online.
Works
What Reading Does to People. A Summary of Evidence on the Social Effects of Reading and a Statement of Problems for Research., with Douglas Waples and Franklyn R. Bradshaw
The People's Choice with Paul F. Lazarsfeld and Hazel Gaudet
Reader in Public Opinion and Communication with Morris Janowitz
Content Analysis in Communication Research - first textbook on content analysis
Voting: a study of opinion formation in a presidential campaign with Paul F. Lazarsfeld and William N. McPhee
The Behavioral Sciences Today
Human Behavior: An Inventory of Scientific Findings with Gary Steiner
Geneva, 1965. Family planning and population programs. A review of world developments
National Programmes in Family Planning. Achievements and Problems. editor
