scare tactic

plural scare tactics

1. human sciencesA type of psychological manipulation regarding a particular issue in which fear or alarm is aroused.

   I think it's a scare tactic. The lockout will get publicity and then people will be less confident about coming to future rallies.

   1981 February 7, Joanne Brown, anonymous quotee, “Anti-Inauguration March Calls For Unity Of Left”, in Gay Community News, volume 8, number 28, page 3

   1 more example

   Invoking cancer is a scare tactic, not a health education strategy. The juxtaposition in the various iterations of Gardasil advertisements of the word “cancer” and the message “you can do something” put parents in a blameworthy position. The current advertisements for Gardasil 9 hardly mention the vaccine. Instead, in these ads children blame their parents for their failure to protect them from a potentially fatal illness.

   2018 January 2, Samantha D. Gottlieb, “9. The “Tragically Underused” Vaccine”, in Not Quite a Cancer Vaccine. Selling HPV and Cervical Cancer, New Brunswick, New Jersey: Rutgers University Press, →DOI, →ISBN, page 143