Human Resources Research Institute

The Human Resources Research Institute (HRRI) was a behavioral science research organization operating at Maxwell Air Force Base in Alabama under U.S. Air Force sponsorship. It was one of several institutional centers for military psychology research established in the early Cold War period and was distinct from the similarly named HumRRO (Human Resources Research Office), which was an Army contractor based in Alexandria, Virginia.¹

Research Program

HRRI's best-documented work involved systematic analysis of Communist Chinese society for psychological warfare targeting purposes. A project initiated as early as 1951 analyzed letters to the editors of several newspapers in Communist China. At that time Chinese newspapers were required to establish correspondents' networks in which letters columns served as a means by which large numbers of readers could carry on a dialogue with the publication. HRRI analysts found that approximately thirty-seven percent of the letters were negative toward the Communist Party, and that worries about corrupt officials, treacherous merchants, and production inefficiency appeared as frequently as anti-US themes. The conclusion drawn was that American propaganda aimed at China should concentrate on production inefficiency and corruption rather than direct anti-Party messaging, allowing Chinese readers to make the inferential connection themselves.¹

A second HRRI study examined what it called the "Family revolution in Communist China," analyzing traditional marriage patterns, the new marriage laws that had outlawed arranged marriages and the bartering of brides, and the social-psychological consequences of those changes. The study noted that wife murders and female suicides had increased during the period of adjustment to the new laws, and that this type of social stress could in principle be exploited propagandistically. No propaganda was ever produced on the basis of these studies, as the need did not arise, but the studies illustrated how detailed sociological analysis was converted into potential targeting material.¹

Institutional Position

HRRI represented the Air Force's contribution to the institutional ecology of Cold War military social science. A classified HRRI document from 1951 is in the documented record: "Implications and summary of a psywar study in South Korea," originally classified Secret and later reduced to Restricted.¹ This situates HRRI as an active participant in the Korean War-era psychological warfare research network that also included HumRRO, the Operations Research Office at Johns Hopkins University, and the American Institutes for Research.¹