What’s Important to Us When Making Political Decisions?

A core assumption in any democracy is that citizens with access to information will make reasoned decisions on political candidates and policy issues. But a new study by UC Berkeley social scientists finds that Americans usually don’t consider the full scope of difficult issues, instead basing their opinions on mental shortcuts that sidestep complexity. The paper offers striking insight into the differences in cognitive reasoning patterns among Americans. While some people in the study did closely analyze a range of issues before coming to an opinion, others did a quick back-of-the-napkin tall

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