The Political Brain : The Role of Emotion in Deciding the Fate of the Nation (Paperback)

from bingereader

Drew Westen does an excellent job of integrating diverse areas of psychology - drawing on Darwin, Freud, Skinner, Damasio, LeDoux - to explain the art of political persuasion and its inherent need to impact the emotional side of the human brain. According to the jacket description, Westen is a ps...

from etsmith

The Political Brain was a revelation to me. I am a fan of both Kathleen Hall Jamieson, who criticizes political communication as deceptive, distracting and bad for democracy, and Samuel Popkin, who says that voters make reasonable decisions under conditions of low information rationality. Drew We...

from NY-Independent76

Drew Westen provides a comprehensive study detailing the impact that emotion has on the electorate. Westen contends that the National Republican party has been more adept at appealing to voter's emotions, while Democrats tend to focus on appealing to voters through the use of logic and issue orie...

from LynnB

The Political Brain is one of the most interesting books I've read. The author is a psychology professor and he uses neurological and psychological studies to explain how voters make decisions. Professor Westen declares upfront that he is a Democrat, and his book is geared to helping Democratic c...

from The_Hibernator

When I picked up this book, I was expecting a more rigorous psychological analysis. This book was actually a purely political commentary on how the Democrats are not as good as the Republicans in appealing to the emotions of potential voters. It came with lots of examples of advertisements and ca...