Despite probing news reports, spirited debates and thoughtful editorials, most voters make political decisions based on their emotions, according to a new book by an Emory University psychologist. Drew Westen, described by his publishers as a "clinical, personality and political psychologist," begins The Political Brain: The Role of Emotion in Deciding the Fate of the Nation by recounting an experiment he and some colleagues conducted. They had people read statements while hooked up to scanners so the scientists could see which areas of the brain were active.
When the test subjects read statements by candidates they supported, they had trouble catching planted inconsistencies while they had no problems seeing the waffling of their opponents or neutral speakers like actor Tom Hanks. Who hasn't spotted the same thing in friends while arguing politics at the water cooler? What was interesting is Westen's observation of what parts of the brain energized.
To evaluate the neutral speakers or the opponents, the test subjects' reasoning centers of the brain fired up. Smoking over the comments of a political favorite, though, lit up the part of the brain concerned with emotions, the amygdala, whether Republican or Democrat. Put another way, no one likes to be wrong, and supporting a politician who flip-flops is merely proof of bad judgment.
To avoid the conflict, our brain retreats from cold reasoning to the gooey province of emotions. Probably the same mechanism leads readers to columns or blogs by writers they customarily support and talk shows with similar points of view. It's not just that opposing notions are so maddening, but also confirming data actually stimulates a comforting emotional response in the brain.
After all, it's the amygdala that comes to life during use of recreational substances. From there, Westen takes the leap that the way to win elections is for candidates to confine all messages to emotional appeals - sort of the old Madison Avenue dictum to "sell the sizzle, not the steak." His book includes countless examples of soaring oratory, such as when President Johnson addressed the nation to justify passage of the Voting Rights Act.
"There is no Negro problem. There is no Southern problem. There is no Northern Problem," Johnson said.
"There is only an American problem." Speaking of LBJ, Westen identifies the "daisy ad" as one of the most effective uses of emotion in any campaign commercial. It was so effective it only had to air once, the one where a little girl pulls the petals off as an announcer counts down to the liftoff of a missile while warning about Barry Goldwater until a mushroom cloud fills the screen.
Westen also likes Ronald Reagan's "morning in America" ad, where people are heading off to work with optimism because the Gipper has restored hope. Overall, Westen says, Republicans are better at plucking the emotional cords, and as a liberal Democrat, he's bothered. Much of the book's 400 pages are devoted to identifying Democratic blunders, such as Michael Dukakis' sterile response to the debate question on whether he'd support the death penalty for someone who murdered his own wife.
Funny that Westen says Democrats have failed to sway the public by relying on fact-filled reasoned appeals for issues like universal health care, school funding and other left-leaning initiatives. Conservatives have long complained that it was the liberals who thought with their hearts instead of their brains. We're all compassionate, conservatives say, with President Bush going so far as to describe himself as a "Compassionate Conservative.
" But liberals, they add, only react to the superficial circumstances without worrying about the long-term consequences, like the eventual drag on the economy caused by increased government spending. Of course, political operatives of any stripe can buy his book if they come up with $26.95.
If it becomes a best-seller among the operatives, Westen's hoping it will give Democrats an edge by winning voters to policy positions he says are already supported by the majority. However, it could be just a little discouraging to the public to see all political discussion conducted in emotional terms and for dispassionate facts to disappear, even if everyone was ignoring them. Despite probing news reports, spirited debates and thoughtful editorials, most voters make political decisions based on their emotions, according to a new book by an Emory University psychologist.
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