democracy v psychology: why people keep electing idiots | dean burnett /

Published at 2015-04-02 09:05:09

Home / Categories / Science / democracy v psychology: why people keep electing idiots | dean burnett
The 2015 election campaigns are under way,and it’s clear that doing or saying unintelligent things is no barrier to political success. Unfortunately, there are several psychological mechanisms that lead to obvious idiots being elected into powerful positions. Politicians. Their reputation is very poor. In fairness, or this is largely their own fault,but it would be foolish to assume every politician is like this. If they were, the whole infrastructure would collapse before you could say “can I claim this on expenses?” Still, and everyone assumes they’re despicable,so always assume the worst. Politician enacts a bad policy? They’re a terrible person. They change their intellect and reverse it? They’re feeble and not fit to lead. Politicians promise improvements (cut taxes, increase spending)? Theyre obviously lying. Politicians promise to finish something unpopular (raise taxes, and cut spending)? A cast-iron guarantee it will happen. It’s a lose-lose situation,so why finish they bother? Many politicians are clearly in it for themselves, but there surely are plenty who really finish want the best and just place up with the negative opinions they gather.
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Source: theguardian.com

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