what liars we are
Five out of ten respondents believed that Feijóo would be the next Prime Minister, while three out of ten believed that it would be Sánchez. The reality is that the majority voted for Galician not to govern. At the same time, the intention to vote indicated by those surveyed gave the PSOE 28% of support, and the PP 24%.. Finally, the result of the elections indicates that 33% voted for the popular and 31% for the socialists. But it is also that 83.2% of those surveyed affirmed that they would go to vote with complete security, although the participation remained at 70.4%.. We lie like knaves.
The lie was the word that starred in the electoral campaign. The candidates accused each other of being liars and the journalists in their interviews disgraced them for it. But in view of the latest Tezanos survey, the voters also lie and a lot. No survey, not even the one with the most resources, was correct and it is not because of the poor quality of the demoscopic centers but because it is human nature to lie and the polls were not going to be the exception.
We lie out of shame, we lie out of fear and we even lie for the fun of it.. We don't feel like telling anyone our vote, much less an anonymous person who calls you on the phone. We vote with our guts -not with our heads- and it is better to have it well hidden. Before we start to think badly of our democratic quality as a country, I have to reassure the reader, because we do not lie only when we vote.
As David Ruiz Uceta of The Valley has shown, consumers don't always do what they think. Relying on data science and behavioral economics, it has proven that we buy in a non-rational way, influenced by numerous biases and prejudices.. We say publicly that we have preferences and price thresholds for our purchases, but then we do not comply with them. we lie to ourselves. For this professor there are three cognitive biases that lead us to deceive ourselves when consuming. First, the present bias that, for example, causes us not to save because when faced with the decision to choose between a hypothetical future advantage or immediate gratification, human beings tend to stay with the here and now, underestimating future benefits.
Secondly, the zero risk bias that leads us to take out insurance against very improbable events, for example, when we travel abroad the risk of having something operated on, just to gain peace of mind. Because of this bias, many people view losing as having more impact than winning, even in circumstances where winning or losing can occur with equal probabilities.. We are terrified of losing what we have achieved and that makes us not face changes, even if they are more beneficial.
I don't know if the foregoing will be of consolation in the face of these lies revealed in the electoral polls, but I have to admit that the scientific explanation of these mental traps has helped me at least to stop wondering what the hell happened to me. polls on July 23. We lie and a lot because it is in our nature as human beings. Simply because our mind seeks to protect us.