A study recently published in the American Journal of Political Science found that patients suffering from profound amnesia can still make pretty good voting decisions. That is, even though the patients couldn’t remember who the candidates were, or what their positions on issues were, they still somehow picked out the ones whose political views were similar to their own. From the abstract:
We report here that amnesic patients, despite not being able to remember any issue information, consistently voted for candidates with favored political positions. Thus, sound voting decisions do not require recall or recognition of previously learned associations between candidates and their issue positions. This result supports a multiple memory systems model of political decision making.
I’m not sure whether these results have any relevance to the American electorate. After all, the amnesic patients once knew the candidates’ positions, but forgot them. But what about voters who don’t know the positions and issues to begin with?
