On Newsweek.com, Sharon Begley wrote an article that brings up an interesting point. Her article titled “Heard Any Good Stories Lately?” talks about the issue of how people’s emotions and a candidate’s personal story could drive a voter to select a candidate based on their feelings toward him or her instead of things like where they stand on the issues.
To me, this seems like common sense; however, I feel that this will occur more in the current election—a war veteran who proudly served his country after spending years in torture from the enemies, the first African-American to be this close to the White House, a hockey mom from Alaska who takes no nonsense and understands the requirements of kids with special needs, and a father who lost his wife and child in a car wreck and knows the importance of home and family. How can someone not feel for one of their life stories?
One of Begley’s thoughts on why people vote through their emotions is because of our society’s lifestyle and technology. In the article, Begley interviews neuroscientist Antonio Damasio of the University of Southern California to help prove her point.
“You can barely pass a screen (TV or computer) or overhear a radio without being pummeled with the latest brouhaha over lipstick-wearing pigs or which candidate was cozier with lobbyists for the failed mortgage giants. When FDR was making radio addresses, ‘people had the time needed for reflection, to mix emotion with facts and reason,’ says Damasio. ‘But now, with 24-hour cable news and the Web, you have a climate in which you don't have time to reflect. The amount and speed of information, combined with less time to analyze every new development, pushes us toward the emotion-based decision pathway.’ And not even emotions such as hope. Voters are being driven ‘by pure like and dislike, comfort or discomfort with a personality,’ says Damasio. ‘And voters judge that by a candidate's narrative.’”
I feel that Damasio is right in that more people will probably vote for a candidate just because they don’t like the other one or feel an emotional connection to one. People are not looking into their stands on their issues, but instead waiting for the latest gossip to reveal one more reason not to like them.