Voting Against Your Own Best Interests

I read somewhere that there is a component in the human brain, it may be the amygdala, which is quite susceptible to strong appeals to emotion. Once the concept or ideological assertion has been laid down, sedimented in memory – it becomes very difficult to change someone’s belief in the validity of the original assertion. Perhaps this explains in some ways the appeal of political ideologies which have clearly unfortunate consequences for many of those who support them ? A wily political tactician may even appeal to the emotions on specific issues, say – identity, patriotism, continuity, strength; meanwhile they simultaneously work against the better interests of those whose votes and minds they have captured, as though through emotional hypnotic suggestion to an unwitting neuropsychological susceptibility.

Context: Unspeakable Realities Block Universal Health Coverage In America