The Emotional Toll of Losing an Election
It seems like common sense: losing an election hurts. But why?
Published in
1 min readNov 9, 2016
In this episode of HKS PolicyCast, behavioral economist and Associate Professor Todd Rogers demonstrates that electoral losses don’t just hurt, they hurt bad. More so even than major national tragedies.
He also discusses our tendency to believe in a favorable future, and the concept of paltering, which describes the active use of truthful statements to mislead.
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Studies mentioned in the episode:
- Losing Hurts: The Happiness Impact of Partisan Electoral Loss
- Artful Paltering: The Risks and Rewards of Using Truthful Statement to Mislead Others
- The Belief in a Favorable Future
- Unacquainted Callers Can Predict Which Citizens Will Vote Over and Above Citizens’ Stated Self-Predictions
