★★★★★ 5
Leveling the playing field
Format: Hardcover
It is a not so tightly held secret that the Republicans know how to manipulate emotions for political advantage; with this book Drew Westen levels the playing field by not only providing insight into how emotions are evoked and taken advantage of politically, but also provides evidence-driven suggestions for the Democratic party to follow. The question, of course, is will the Democrats change their electoral strategies taking Dr. Westen's suggestions to heart, or will they follow the failed tactics of the Gore and Kerry campaigns, which relied on consultants following a rational-choice model of politics that prefers watered down political positions and milquetoast candidates in hopes of taking the "center".
While some may argue that this book is unethical by advocating the targeting of voters' emotions, instead of their "rational thought process", and thus is supportive of public manipulation, a very strong counter-argument might be made that putting this information in the public domain will help voters inoculate themselves against current Republican strategies which rely on scaring the public and arousing their anger against others using a range of techniques that border on the illegal. Specifically, the "RATS" subliminal advertisement used by the Bush 2000 campaign to attack Gore is, on close scrutiny, a very astute and professional advertisement that takes advantage of knowledge in the academic sphere that humans process information outside of conscious awareness. Specifically, a 1986 article in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology by Fazio et al. provided evidence that not only did the term "RATS" have a negative effect on peoples' evaluation of items presented afterwards, but that further, the term "Reagan" had a weak positive effect. Likewise, both Westen and colleagues and Stewart and Schubert(in Harvard International Journal of Press/Politics, 2006), in separate studies, suggest that the term "RATS" is an effective subliminal.
Furthermore, the use of fear/anxiety by the current administration is well established, with studies showing a correlation between changes in the Homeland Security color-coded threat indicator and political tactics. While one might argue over the timing of the Iraq invasion, and whether it was carried out for short-term political expediency, or to address a perceived threat in the region, one cannot argue with the rally effect that bolstered President Bush's ratings to over 90% immediately after 9-11 and over 70% after the Iraq invasion. Knowing that humans respond in predictable ways when different emotions are evoked allows not just politicians, consultants, academics and wonks to understand human behavior, but also will give the average citizen greater awareness of how the emotions evoked affect their decisions and responses. In other words, a more intelligent population may come from a more emotionally astute population.
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Reviewed in the United States on September 5, 2007
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