Politics of the subconscious [View All]

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The politics of the subconscious

The cover story of the February 28 2005 issue of U.S. News and World Report delves into the power of the subconscious mind and how it and not the conscious mind is responsible for most of our daily decisions and thought patterns. Though the article did cover political persuation itself, it does touch on the how correlations between images, thoughts, memory and "mental vision" affect our preferences and decision making.

Part of the article refers to a research study on cola done in Blink Magazine. "Even with a less preferred taste, Coke remains No. 1 in the softdrink world." However when 67 committed Coke and Pepsi drinkers were given a blind taste test, Pepsi won hands down. When the labels of the cans were shown, however, 3 out of 4 picked Coke. Why? "The researchers scanned the brains of the participants during the test and discovered that the Coke label created wild activity in the part of the brain associated with memories and self-image" while Pepsi simply did not. Besides, the eery Blue/Red comparision, I find this to be similar to the Democratic vs. Republican dilemma. In poll after poll, focus group after focus group and study after study, people, with no party labels given, invariably lean to the liberal/democratic position over the /conservative/Republican position. These studies, it must be said, involve unslanted questions. The choices are between two trains of thought with adequate context as to not lead the respondent to one choice or the other. However when the choices are labeled with party name or ideology, respondents tend to fall in line with their self-ascribed political indentification. This phenomenon is something the Democratic Party needs to address. If it weren't so serious, it'd laughable how much the population leans left on issues but then votes the other way because of preconceived biases based on irrational perceptions and inconsequential rhetoric void of substance or relevance to any policy. There's also a section on subconscious interpretations of right and wrong (page 60) that I'll save for another time.

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