Voter Apathy

Could it be? It might. An Associated Press article in today's Enterprise seems to point in that direction. As I interpret what the article says, those attack ads that everyone despises work, but not quite in the way one might assume. "Mostly researchers found that negative ads tend to polarize and make it less likely that supporters of an attacked candidate will vote." (italics added) Most interesting.

So here's what I'm wondering - do the attack ads that candidates run against each other lead to the voter apathy which exhibits itself in such abysmal voter turnouts?

It seems that the negative ads trigger brain responses which show up on functional MRI's. Here's what the researchers found: "When the test subjects saw a picture of the candidate they supported, the medial orbital frontal cortex of the brain - the area behind the eyeballs associated with empathy- lit up. When they were shown a picture or TV ad for the candidate they opposed, the island-shaped insula in the middle of the brain lit up along with other areas 'associated with distaste', Iacoboni (the researcher and UCLA professor) said, Then, other parts of the brain activated, as if the participants were 'using their rational brain areas to get upset at the other guy; they were using it to find a reason ' to dislike the candidate."

Here's the intriguing thing, if each candidate in a race is running attack ads against their opponents, do they ultimately encourage each other's potential voters to stay home? Maybe that's why everyone pulls out the negative advertising, so neither candidate ends up with an advantage. Lousy reason for running them, especially if it reduces potential voters. (or maybe not, depending on your perspective - if you'd prefer a low turnout, that is)

One other bit of tantalizing information - if you're an independent voter, you tend to be neutral in your reaction to the ads. I wonder what it would take to develop a nation of independent voters who aren't committed to either of the political parties.

One of the oddball things which stuck in my mind from high school government was George Washington's farewell address, and a part of that address was a concern that America end up enamored by the party system of politics. Maybe it's time for us to take Washington's advice to heart and send each of the parties to the showers. I wonder what would happen if all candidates were independents, and no one beholden to any particular party structure.

A woman can dream, can't she?