There are distinct types of emotion: fear, anxiety, elation... It is clear why political campaigns seem always to "play to our emotions." In order to change a voter's standing (and mostly unexamined) decision, an appeal to the voter must arouse emotions. Since anxiety seems to be the factor that is causally related to reconsideration, it is natural that campaign managers would try to arouse anxiety.
—Bryan D. Jones, Politics and the Architecture of Choice
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The basic underlying principals for why and how politicians pander is in Bryan Caplan's Myth of the Rational Voter (http://www.amazon.com/Myth-Rational-Voter-Democracies-Policies/dp/0691138737/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1213463414&sr=8-1 .) Bryan was also featured on the book on Econtalk about a year ago.
-Gene
Posted by: hoffmang | 14 June 2008 at 12:11