Getting inside voter’s minds

[This was my ‘letter to the editor’ of the LA Times ..in response to an article which talks about the way neuroscience can be used to predict election outcomes. I have just enough background to detect overblown claims such as these]

The techniques used by neuroscience to observe mental activity are so new; they’re like trying to envision life on another planet with nautical charts created before the days of Columbus. That’s why I’m doubtful about the claims made by ‘Neuro-marketers’ who say they can tell a person's reaction to a campaign slogan by looking at their EEG. It’s a matter of interpretation. A good example is the study mentioned at the beginning of the article. ‘Neuro-pollsters’ detect a burst of brain wave activity in response to the phrase “..people in need will never be invisible to me” ..taken from a speech given by Hillary Clinton. They take it as a signal of “subconscious fear” on the part of the listener. However, someone else may interpret it as a response to a double-negative .. requiring a little extra attention to understand. In other words, I wonder what they would have seen had Clinton said: “..people in need will always be visible to me” instead.