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The Leonard Lopate Show / December 24, 2007 / How Emotion Influences Voters

How Emotion Influences Voters

Monday, December 24, 2007

Political psychologist Drew Westen says that successful politicians must appeal to voters’ hearts, maybe even more than to voters’ minds. His recent book is The Political Brain: The Role of Emotion in Deciding the Fate of the Nation.


Comments

  • [1] Thomas Eccardt from New York, NY December 24, 2007 - 12:36PM

    Dear Mr. Lopate,

    Maybe Drew Westen's experiments are valid, but his anecdotes can be absurd. He spent a long time condemning Al Gore and praising Bill Clinton for their campaign strategies. I guess he forgot that Al Gore won the popular vote in 2000, and Bill Clinton got less than half of the popular vote in 1992.

    I hope that next time you hear yet another person condemn Al Gore for losing the 2000 election, you'll remember that he actually won.

    Sincerely,

    Tom Eccardt
  • [2] Pavel Gurvich from Norwalk, CT December 24, 2007 - 06:20PM

    Mr Westen's conclusions does not surprise me at all. We are social animals and our herd adherence is genetically defined. Dean Hamer has proved that VMAT2 gene defines how strong our self-transcendence is. He called it "spirituality" though in reality it is nothing more than implementation of our herd instinct. Mr Westen just confirms that many of us value our political, religious and other affiliation above our reasons. Any attempt to attack social grout we identify ourselves with certainly creates emotional response. It is subconscious and as long as we can not uderstand and control it we are not true humans yet.

This thread is closed.


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