These political ads are so bad. They seem to work on the premise that we are all a bunch of idiots. They tell blatant lies, they distort, they appeal to our worst instincts - fear, selfishness, xenophobia. And if the ads aren’t bad enough, everyone seems to think that I will be persuaded to vote for a candidate based on the number of signs they have spread around. How dumb do they think we are?
But, unfortunately, these folks are actually on to something. The best research indicates that the vast majority of us do not really make rational decisions based on information. Rather, we react emotionally to our first impressions - our gut call. It's how evolution shaped us to survive. We respond to first impressions, colored by experience and prejudice, and make snap judgments. Then we support this with labored reasoning to give ourselves some semblance of rationality. But we are basically gut instinct responders to stimulus. When I hear a “threat”, “attack”, or other risk to my prized possessions or opinions, I respond automatically.
Evolution gave us these finely tuned instincts to survive. In a world full of fast moving predators and dangerous enemy tribes, we had to make quick decisions. If we did not, our genes did not get passed on. So the ones who responded the quickest are our ancestors, not the ones with the most reasoned approach, or solid facts, or anything resembling structured thought and planning. For a lot more on this, see one of my favorite books, Thinking, Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman.
These are some of the dominant semi-automatic emotions that are fired off by our brain stem, and result in these gut instinct decisions:
· Black and White. You are either with me or against me. There is no middle ground, no complicated and grey area of compromise. Anyone that wants to get elected has to be simple, and on my side – no quibbling allowed. This instinct was enormously useful when one encountered a foe on a mountain pass, and a quick decision was the difference between life and death.
· Xenophobic. My tribe is the only one that counts. If you are an outsider, you are a threat. If you look like me, and sound like me, you are friend. Everyone and everything else is foe. Simple enough. This makes decisions easy and quick.
· Power is Right. The strongest guy is the leader – figure out who it is and follow him. It’s not smarts, and not wisdom, it’s brute strength. If you choose wrong, you are in the out crowd, and don’t get any of the hunt.
· Follow the Herd. It’s the best way to find food, and get protection against predators. You do not want to be left out there alone, or with a splinter group. This is why those signs are important – I need to be where every one else is going. Point the way and I’m there.
· Symbols Are Everything. In the midst of a battle, or flight, people prone to long, complicated speeches do not survive. Make it simple, give me a picture, a label – that’s all the information I can handle! Give the enemy a name, and say it often enough, and it starts to sound like it makes sense.
Democracy is still the best form of government around – but we definitely have to improve the participants! The hope is that when we understand that these emotional things are at work, we will put in place the process, the social mechanism, to ensure that they do not rule the day. In most parts of the world, we have managed to get people to think twice before doing bodily harm to a foe. In a few parts of the world, we actually have things called financial controls to catch those of us who are given to that selfish gene. Unfortunately, we have not figured out how to temper these gut reactions yet for our political structures. Our politicians understand this, so they appeal to these things.
I think one approach might be to remove the direct election capability that we hold so dear. Instead, let’s have an electoral college of seasoned adults who actually discuss things rationally and make the choice. Oh, wait, that’s been tried! There is another paper here with a bit more on that.
Copyright Carl Scheider 2013