Throw the Bums Out
GAINESVILLE, Ga. / May 24, 2010 – Arlen Specter's 30-year U.S. Senate career
is over and Gordon Brown never stood a chance of getting reelected as the
UK’s prime minister - but it has almost nothing to do with their political
choices. They lost, say researchers at Georgia’s Socionomics Institute,
simply because they were in office when social mood went south. Anxious
voters, beset with images of falling markets and protests worldwide, went
to the voting booths and pulled the lever for change. Researcher Euan Wilson,
in a study on elections, says when social mood is low, people are heavily
inclined to vote incumbents out of office. He also notes that third party
candidates gain favor when social mood is down. That was good news for Kentucky's
Rand Paul, whose Tea Party sensibilities will carry him to the U.S. Senate,
and it should bode equally well for tea party candidates in the US midterm
elections this November.
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About The Socionomics Institute
The Socionomics Institute, based in Gainesville, Ga., studies social mood
and its role in driving cultural trends. The Institute’s analysis is published
in the monthly research review, The Socionomist. Learn more at
www.socionomics.net.
Note to Media: For copies of studies or to arrange an interview
with a researcher from the Socionomics Institute, contact Alexandra Lienhard at (770) 536-0309, alexandral@socionomics.net.
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