ABSTRACT
In The Political Brain: The Role of Emotion in Deciding the Fate of the Nation, Dr. Drew Westen concludes that voting has everything to do with emotions and very little to do with rational choice. For decades, economists and social scientists assumed that human behavior was predicated on reason. Economists had developed and adhered to a theory of rational choice, in which a person weighed all opportunities and challenges and made a specific calculation of the utility of an option before making a decision. Messaging is the term of art used by communications professionals to describe a particular story, namely a set of thoughts surrounding an issue or an experience that a particular entity — be it a company, candidate, or advocacy group — wants to promote. The process of research and discovery may also involve polling or some form of opinion gathering. Research, polling, focus groups — they all have one overriding purpose: to divine public opinion.
