×
App Icon
The Standard e-Paper
Home To Bold Columnists
★★★★ - on Play Store
Download Now

Kalonzo-Mudavadi ticket straight loss for Nasa coalition

NASA co-principals Kalonzo Musyoka and Musalia Mudavadi

The sympathy axis on which a Musalia Mudavadi-Kalonzo Musyoka ticket would rotate, would fail the National Super Alliance (NASA) even worse. I will explain.
American Psychologist Drew Westen conducted a study at Emory University on how the brain is unconscious and driven by emotions during politics. He presented the results at the 2006 annual conference of the Society for Personality and Social Psychology.

His findings revealed that the part of the brain most associated with reasoning (dorsolateral prefrontal cortex) was dormant. Most active were the orbital frontal cortex, which is involved in the processing of emotions; the anterior cingulate, which is associated with conflict resolution; the posterior cingulate, which is concerned with making judgements about moral accountability; and once subjects had arrived at a conclusion that made them emotionally comfortable, the ventral striatum, which is related to reward and pleasure. Basically the study showed that political decisions are a product of unconscious confirmation bias.

Get Full Access for Ksh299/Week
Unlock the Full Story — Join Thousands of Informed Kenyans Today
  • Unlimited access to all premium content
  • Uninterrupted ad-free browsing experience
  • Mobile-optimized reading experience
  • Weekly Newsletters
  • MPesa, Airtel Money and Cards accepted
Already a subscriber? Log in