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80,000 Hours Podcast
The Effect of Social Desirability Bias on Irrational Voting
Voters are prone to making irrational decisions similar to randomly throwing objects into a shopping cart without prior thinking, which leads to wasting money on unwanted items. This irrational behavior extends to voting, where individuals may choose candidates or policies based on emotional responses, ideology, or what sounds good rather than what is effective. The speaker argues that due to the lack of individual influence in an election, people can safely vote randomly or for what sounds good without affecting the outcome. The proliferation of social desirability bias further exacerbates this issue, where people tend to lie or deceive themselves when confronted with unappealing truths. As a result, the foundation of democracy may rest on superficial appearances rather than substantive policy considerations, with a general disregard for the real effects of policies.
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