fbpx
 
Home / News, Videos & Publications / News / Press Releases /

On Election Day, Candidates Have No Monopoly on Stress

On Election Day, Candidates Have No Monopoly on Stress

November 11, 2011

Press Releases

 

By Sam Roberts

The New York Times — Election Day is seldom associated with raging hormones. But three professors from Israel, where all politics is vocal, suggest that the very act of voting generates stress levels that could affect the outcome.

In an experiment conducted in a small Israeli town during the fiercely contested 2009 national election, the researchers took saliva samples from people who were about to vote. They found higher levels of glucocorticoid hormones, including cortisol, which are secreted by the adrenal glands and are associated with stress.

Not only that, but people who planned to vote for the underdog tended to exhibit even more stress — affirming a study from the United States that found Obama voters’ cortisol levels remained steadier than those of McCain voters as the 2008 election results rolled in.

“This is the first study to explore the psychological well-being of actual voters through an endocrinal measure at the ballot,” the professors — Israel Waismel-Manor of the University of Haifa and Gal Ifergane and Hagit Cohen of Ben-Gurion University of the Negev — write in a recent edition of the journal European Neuropsychopharmacology.

They conducted their experiment in Omer, a small town 70 miles south of Tel Aviv, and hope to replicate it in the United States a year from now, when Americans choose a president.

“In an ideal democracy, we would like citizens to make reasoned choices, and vote based on the ideas and quality of the parties and candidates in a given election,” the authors write.

While they do not discount the usefulness of emotion in making that choice — they say that “feeling anxious about a candidate is a good enough reason not to vote for him or her” — they add:

“We must understand that emotions are not merely feelings; often they carry with them a physio-endocrinal component which itself has the potential to biologically affect decision-making at the ballot box.”

People with higher cortisol levels are more likely to make snap decisions, the authors say, citing earlier studies. And higher levels of the hormone can affect memory.

“We do not argue that cortisol causes amnesia,” Professor Waismel-Manor said, “but it is possible that as some of these voters approach the ballot, they tend to forget how good or bad the last four years have been, or perhaps just that the troops are still in the Middle East, or that the recession is still here. That could be enough for some undecided voters or leaners to tilt the decision one way or the other.”

Such reactions may help explain the “What’s the Matter With Kansas?” syndrome, advanced by the book of the same name, in which people sometimes seem to vote against their self-interest.

One way to reduce stress, he suggests, would be to encourage absentee voting or mail ballots to eliminate “the public performance” of voting.

“We go to a public place where there are lots of strangers, people who probably do not know me, will check my ID and determine if I can vote, I may face a long line, and I really want to get back to watch the game, I will probably run into Aunt Edna, and I hate her guts, etc.,” he said. Stress levels may also be driven “by a sense of duty: the fate of the nation is in my hands.”

Professor Waismel-Manor said he hoped to collaborate with American scholars “to provide the public and decision makers in Washington substantiated data that may or may not confirm that voting is indeed stressful, what causes this stress, can the stress be reduced, and whether voters with lower stress vote more closely to their true preference — the preference they had the night before Election Day.”

ABOUT AMERICANS FOR BEN-GURION UNIVERSITY

By supporting a world-class academic institution that not only nurtures the Negev, but also shares its expertise locally and globally, Americans for Ben-Gurion University engages a community of Americans who are committed to improving the world. David Ben-Gurion envisioned that Israel’s future would be forged in the Negev. The cutting-edge research carried out at Ben-Gurion University drives that vision by sustaining a desert Silicon Valley, with the “Stanford of the Negev” at its center. The Americans for Ben-Gurion University movement supports a 21st century unifying vision for Israel by rallying around BGU’s remarkable work and role as an apolitical beacon of light in the Negev desert.

About Ben-Gurion University of the Negev

Ben-Gurion University of the Negev embraces the endless potential we have as individuals and as a commonality to adapt and to thrive in changing environments. Inspired by our location in the desert, we aim to discover, to create, and to develop solutions to dynamic challenges, to pose questions that have yet to be asked, and to push beyond the boundaries of the commonly accepted and possible.

We are proud to be a central force for inclusion, diversity and innovation in Israel, and we strive to extend the Negev’s potential and our entrepreneurial spirit throughout the world. For example, the multi-disciplinary School for Sustainability and Climate Change at BGU leverages over 50 years of expertise on living and thriving in the desert into scalable solutions for people everywhere.

BGU at a glance:  

20,000 students | 800 senior faculty | 3 campuses | 6 faculties: humanities & social sciences, health sciences, engineering sciences, natural sciences, business & management, and desert research.

 

For all press inquiries, please contact:

James Fattal, J Cubed Communications

516.289.1496

[email protected]