Research about the brain affirms that people rely upon emotion to vote for what makes them feel good. Is it true?
Look at the anatomy of a politician’s brain – and you’ll see more about policies enacted between the vote for elected officials and their final days in office.
In The Political Brain –Drew Western, a professor of psychology at Emory 
University - shows how new research about the human brain and politics - points to three things that determine how people vote.
First, feelings toward the party dictate if that party stands another chance at the ballot box. Second, feelings toward the candidates themselves will draw or reject a vote. Finally, feelings about candidate’s policy positions influence undecided voters. In that order.
According to Drew Westen … “The way to win elections, particularly against a party that understands how to move people, is to understand the political brain—how it evolved, how it works, and how central emotion is to it.”
Do you believe it?
Perhaps we’ll never fully figure out the politician’s brain … but here’s what we do know …
1. Research affirms that most decisions are made from emotion, with far fewer made from logical reasoning, than once believed. In politics, Western adds … “When reason and emotion collide, emotion invariably wins.”
2. Reason merely supports emotion in the decision making process. When votes are decided in the marketplace of emotions … values, images, analogies, moral sentiments, and moving oratory, enable logic to play only a supporting role.
3. Candidates can lose because they are too intelligent … or use complex language that disconnects voters from how they feel. In this way Western claims … candidates can fool the American people into voting against their own best interests.
4. Political candidates falter if they appeal mainly to reason. Let’s say they list policies that will make us a better nation. They don’t realize how the images they articulate can set off emotional cues that undermine their own chances to win.
5. Feel good images in a campaign, prompt votes. For instance, a smile, the use of voters’ names in town halls, or images of family life that appeal to personal passions tend to spark areas of the brain that lead to votes on election day.
Research on the brain is changing our minds about current political processes, as we begin to see how the human brain decides between substantive policies and human feelings when it’s time to vote.
More significantly as I see it– this book raises new questions about how emotion emerges from and contributes to reason. Emotions – for instance impact learning and at the same time - are also learned. And while it’s true feelings draw us back from some decisions and nudge us forward for others –we’ll want to avoid overstating their role – to the exclusion of rational parts of the human brain.
Vote with the brain in mind, for instance, and your multiple intelligences impact who wins. And how about new research that shows stronger emotional influences, as brain chemicals refuel your choices? Could these discoveries help you to step back and reflect further before you mark your ballot? It could mean the beginning of a new day in politics – do you agree?
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