Neue Psychologieforschung schlägt vor, dass die Wähler mehr auf Gefühle als Fakten reagieren | Die Forscher stellten fest, dass die Wähler nicht nur davon beeinflusst werden, wie genau die Ansichten eines Kandidaten mit seinen eigenen übereinstimmen, sondern auch, wie der Kandidat sie anfühlt.

From the article: A recent study [published](https://doi.org/10.3389/fpos.2025.1640408) in Frontiers in Political Science provides evidence that emotions influence voting decisions more strongly than policy preferences. By analyzing data from five United States presidential elections between 2000 and 2016, the researchers found that voters are not only swayed by how closely a candidate’s views align with their own, but also by how the candidate makes them feel. Emotional reactions—especially positive feelings toward one candidate over another—tend to have a larger effect on vote choice than rational evaluations based on ideology.

Voting is often thought of as a rational act, one in which citizens weigh the pros and cons of candidates based on issues, policies, and competence. This perspective is shaped by long-standing theories such as rational choice theory, which suggest voters make calculated decisions to maximize their self-interest. In this view, individuals compare party platforms to their own policy preferences and vote for the option that promises the greatest benefit.

However, emotions have long been part of the political experience. Campaigns use music, imagery, slogans, and personal stories to connect with voters emotionally. Political scientists have increasingly recognized that affect (feelings like hope, pride, anger, or fear) plays a role in shaping political behavior. While emotions have been shown to mobilize voters and strengthen partisan identity, fewer studies have directly compared their influence with that of rational thinking in determining how people vote.

The new study set out to do just that. The researchers aimed to assess the extent to which emotional reactions and rational evaluations independently and jointly predict vote choice. More importantly, they wanted to understand whether emotional factors have a stronger effect than rational ones.

“I published a paper entitled ‘Why Do People Vote? Rationality or Emotion‘ in the International Political Science Review, where I examined how rationality and emotion shape voter turnout. Building on this work, Professor Costas Panagopoulos and I extended the analysis to explore how these two factors influence individuals’ vote choices. Because little scholarly attention has been devoted to examining the effects of rationality and emotion on vote choice simultaneously, our study seeks to address this gap in the literature,” explained study author Ching-Hsing Wang, an associate professor at National Cheng Kung University.

I work in politics, this is true; ideally emotions can be used to build support for good candidates but that doesn’t always happen.

… well, that’s not exactly an encouraging finding…

Guys, I think we might be in more trouble than we thought…

That’s a given no? These same people often argue from an emotional place rather than a rational one when they share views. The vast majority of people work from feelings that’s why no one with power ever has to be what they say they just need to put on a show and people will react accordingly. 

It creates extremes though visceral rejection or blind acceptance are common, the shades of grey fall into the gaps.