Psychologists as Political Analysts?
Study: Fear shapes voters' views (LINK)
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The idea that Bush might have psychologists rather than speech writers putting the words in his mouth is rather unnerving after reading about how effectively this psychological approach works. Although, I wonder if psychologists are a standard component of the average political administration and just aren't mentioned very often. That would explain Nixon's brilliant use of a cute, little dog named Checkers in his 1952 speech. |
Any competent politician who has the guts to go nose-to-nose with voters and the public outside of a well-scripted media event is by necessity a pretty good lay psychologist. Of course, all the qualifiers I've put down here disqualify about 3/4 of the people in higher public office today!
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Re: Psychologists as Political Analysts?
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Yes, water is wet, but the interesting part was the actual study and you had to click the link and read the whole thing to get that part. I wasn't going to post the whole thing, but here is some of it:
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Indeed, Noam Chomsky often argues that the right-wing is constantly using fear as their main tactic for wining elections, while suppressing the social and especially the economic issues that most people disagree with them on. I think it makes a lot of sense: fear of black people, fear of immigrants, fear of drugs, fear of gays, and fear of terrorists and other enemies about to destroy us. It's a constant theme.
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I don't disagree that using psychological manipulation seems dishonest, but I wonder if it would be worrysome if Bush was saying all of the same stuff but without the psychological motivation... I mean, is it the message or the motivation that is scary? Does it remain scary if you believe it even knowing the motivation for him using this method? Part of me thinks that this study is a fancy way of recognizing that all political messages have two components: the message and the intended effect, and those may not be congruent. |
Yes. Both sides use the same tactics and have the same level of professional studies - their rhetoric is targeted toward various demographics. Democrats play fear on Race issues, etc.
Do you really suppose that focus group studies, psychological research, and every other scientific/behavioral method of manipulation is not used by some major political party? |
I don't know why people are afraid after 9/11... well, I mean I guess I could give a smart assed answer and say "because most of the population are sheep", but really, I think most people live too much of a sheltered life.
I could see being a bit concerned if you lived in a major city like NYC, but if you're from some no-name down in the middle of Kentucky and you're afraid of terrorists, you have a bit of a problem and are probably very easily persuaded by what others say to you ;) Man, I really wish people would snap out of it.. Any time Bush uses 9/11 as a way to get ahead, I just chuckle. I mean, even if you're pro-Bush, you gotta admit that he didn't really do much during it all. Yeah, he visisted ground zero, gave a few speeches, and gave the generals the "okay" to bomb Afghanistan, but really, IMO, anyone else could've done that. I don't see why he feels he's special just because it happened while he was president. |
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