If you’re anything like me, you’ve spent a boatload of mental energy trying to figure out what kind of human being could possibly support Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump.
It’s easy to laugh off Trump supporters as crazy, ignorant, uneducated, or racist. That might work for some of them, but I personally know kind, educated, loving people who plan to vote for the man.
This just boggles my mind.
Now the Huffington Post is helping me to figure out what the hell is going on in the minds of Trump voters.
Neuroscientist Bobby Azarian is a cognitive science specialist at George Mason University. He explains that in order to survive, all human beings are programmed to be aware of threats. It makes sense, right? If something jumps out at you, you need to pull back.
A scientific study done in 2008 and published in the journal “Science” shows us that conservatives and liberals respond differently to threats. Those who held conservative views had a significantly stronger physical response to scary pictures than liberals had.
The conservatives had more eye blinks, sweatier skin, and higher heart rates than liberals did when they were shown pictures of spiders on faces, for example.
Another study done in 2011 used MRI scans to show that conservatives have a larger amygdala, the part of the brain that processes threatening information. Generally non-threatening things (like Muslims, maybe?) appear as true threats to these people.
You can see how Trump has played right into these overblown fears. All those Mexican rapists pouring over the border, for example. He exaggerates the risk, and his followers react with greater fear.
Dr. Azarian went on to describe an idea called “Terror Management Theory.” This theory says that when people are reminded that death is inevitable, they feel terrified. It says that people cope with that terror by creating a world view to make themselves feel protected. They create groups of “us” against “them” in order to feel power in numbers.
So terrified conservatives who believe that ISIS is coming any minute make themselves feel better by telling themselves that they’ll be safe if they elect Trump. Scared of Mexicans? No worries, he’s going to build an actual physical wall between you and them. Afraid of ISIS? Easy. He’s going to bomb the sh*t out of them.
Dr. Azarian also said:
“Fear mongering is Donald Trump’s way of leveraging terror management to his advantage, and in effect promote a tribal mentality that can influence elections. Fear keeps Trump’s voters energized and focused on safety.”
Even though this theory seems to give Trump more credit for craftiness than I think he deserves, it makes a lot of sense to me.
There is one more piece to the explanation of who is supporting Trump.
That is the candidate’s ability to portray himself as the only one who can possible save his terrified devotees. Other candidates are “weak”, “low energy”, “crooked,” or “little.” He constantly tells his voters that he is the greatest, smartest, best, healthiest hero they’ve ever seen.
At the Republican Convention he even insisted, “I alone can fix it.”
Wow. This is a really scary scenario. Once again the world is faced with a country full of fearful people seeking a savior and a narcissist who thinks they mean him.
Featured image by DonkeyHotey via Flickr. Available through Creative Commons Attribution Share Alike Generic 2.0 license.
