Our elections are turning out to be most sardonic and vitriolic. The rhetoric of politicians across parties has been anything but polite. It has been acerbic and provocative at most times. Is this the new template? Will this have to be endured in future by the people? Is convincing an uncommitted voter to vote against one’s opponent by whatever means, as valuable as convincing to vote for oneself? The tools used in this negative campaigning are surprise, anger, anxiety, fear and pride.
The negative campaigns may even turn off voters from political participation altogether. Unfortunately, most political parties believe that they can keep more of the competitor’s voters away from the polls than they will of their own. That being the case, are we seeing higher payoffs to negative attacks, on rationally gullible people?
Issues such as price rise, safety of womenfolk or fear of being hauled up by the authorities for airing contrary views all cause immense anxiety. Anxiety is an affective intelligence attribute and is being exploited by both those in power and those in opposition. While increasing political attentiveness, it decreases reliance on party identification when deciding on issues. It might even improve decision-making capabilities. Voters who report anxiety regarding an election are more likely to vote for candidates whose policies they prefer, while voters who report feeling anxious for a candidate, are twice as likely to defect and vote for the opposition candidate. Is it any surprise then, that anxiety is peddled through social media posts?
A fear drawn out of perceived wrong gives rise to anger. Affective influence then increases the anger which then seeks retaliation. Parties shift narratives just as quickly as perceptions change. Be it university students, farmers, pensioners or the common people on the street, all tend to fight the system on perceptions based on what is fed to them, especially in election times. The agitators then take extreme views running each other down while accusations fly thick and fast.
If those in power seek an upper hand based on their ground work, the opponents would stir-up the un-kept promises and a general failure of the social fabric. Both drive fear in people. Studies in psychology tell us that people experiencing fear, rely on more detailed processing when making choices and spend more time seeking information on the web before the voting day, than those who are free of anger.
A few so-called leaders would then try driving a wedge for their own interests. That wedge could be ideology or adrenalin pumping false rhetoric. What follows is not always predictable, most times resulting in violence. The collective wisdom and introspection that should have been the guiding spirit at all such times, would desert eventually.
Pride is another affective behaviour, used in election times. National pride is a potent weapon to whip up emotions. Pride, along with hope and fear, influence the voting patterns. Whereas research has it that pride influences by one third the size of the ‘effect of party identification’ it motivates people to vote in large numbers too.
All political parties use social media effectively to cause emotional instability in people. Neuroticism, or emotional instability is characterized by extreme and maladaptive responses to stressors and cause anxiety, anger, and fear. Individuals high on this trait are more receptive to populist campaigns, which specifically prey on fears of looming threats and dangers.
Populist standpoints play upon voter’s fears. We seem to be caught in a partisan hyper conflict that divides politicians, communities, friends and even families. Every message peddled on WhatsApp is a populist standpoint. Politicians small and big, play on strongly-held beliefs and sometimes even proactively polarise potentially dangerous situations. This polarization has become so intense that many people no longer trust anyone with a differing perspective.
Election times being extremely volatile, what must be done? Whereas meeting ground should be discussions and debates instead of charged up passions, opposite is seen in reality. Can we afford to have people primed more with fear and emotion and less on issue-based concurrence? Multi-cultural society must be our vision, where people with different nationalities, languages, religions and ethnicities live together harmoniously and at peace for it is our people with different traditions, lifestyles, cultures, values and ethics who add to our stature in the global comity of nations.