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Politics only works with emotions, says a media psychologist and has suggestions on what the Scholzomat and the traffic light government could do better.
“Every decision we make is based on emotions,” says neuroscientist Maren Urner BuzzFeed News Germany from IPPEN.MEDIAThe human brain does not function through facts, but through our feelings. Politics is not made up of numbers, data and diagrams, but fear, anger and love. At the moment, however, this is happening completely uncontrolled, she criticises.
Instead of cleverly using emotions, the traffic light government is also relying primarily on facts. “Politicians lack emotional maturity,” says Urner. She is a professor of media psychology at the University of Media, Communication and Economics in Cologne (HMKW) and with her new Book “Radical Emotional” has written a guide on how everyone (including the Scholzomat Olaf Scholz) on three steps towards emotional radicalism.
Neuroscientist on politics: “Without emotional closeness the door is closed”
“Radical emotionality requires radical attention, honesty and connection,” explains Urner. We have to understand our feelings, communicate them honestly and want to understand the feelings of others. All things that are neglected in the political debate. Instead of having discussions about nuclear power or Paragraph 218 (abortion) that are really emotional, officials resort to rationality. They don’t want to polarize or be populist.
The problem: “The louder the demand for rationality, the more emotionally charged the debates become,” says Urner. “This is where Olaf Scholz comes into play, who appears to be particularly free of emotion. In doing so, he conveys a pseudo-objectivity, because he too has a lot of emotions that underlie his decisions,” says the neuroscientist. “If this pseudo-objectivity meets people with different beliefs, then conflicts inevitably arise. For the latter, Scholz’s argumentation rightly feels wrong because he does not communicate his values in a radically honest way.”
What could a radically emotional political discussion look like? For example, the Greens should not have argued only with numbers in the debate on nuclear phase-out (for example, how much electricity nuclear power produces), but should have argued radically honestly that they want a “clean country”, an emotional aspect that may also be felt by politicians of the AfD met with understanding. “Studies and facts are central,” says Urner. “But emotional access is the key that opens the door to the brain to let the facts in. Without emotional closeness, the door is closed.”
What the AfD is doing right when it comes to emotions
Although the AfD is currently losing supportit was a successful course for a long time. This is not surprising for Maren Urner. “The AfD’s campaigns show impressively how much people function through emotions,” she says BuzzFeed News Germany“When an AfD election poster says ‘Courage to tell the truth’, it can’t get more absurd than that.” After all, the party spreads a lot of false information. That’s why they like to talk about how we live in “Absurdistan”.
Emotional access is particularly important in times of crisis, when we are faced with the Middle East conflictdem Ukraine Wareconomic development and the climate crisis. “Historical perspective shows that dictators have always been particularly successful when the population was particularly insecure and fear was particularly great.” In such a state, people are not able to conduct constructive debates.
This is an article by BuzzFeed News Germany. We are part of the IPPEN.MEDIAnetwork. Here you can find all contributions from BuzzFeed News Germany.
Do politicians need an “emotional maturity test”?
In her book, the professor of media psychology calls for a ministry of love and solidarity and puts forward the idea that politicians should first pass an “emotional maturity test” before making important decisions. Perhaps mediators are needed who can always bring debates in the Bundestag back to the emotional level, Urner thinks.
But that’s not the only place we need to start: “The private is political and the political is private,” says Urner. In the end, it’s always about how we live together and politics, just like social media, is just an instrument for shaping this coexistence. That’s why it’s important for each individual to be radically attentive, honest and connected. That might also include inviting the AfD voter in the house next door for a coffee.
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