Ahead of GE2011, an intriguing article on voter psychology

I came back today from the funeral of my brother Tee Chuan (Dick Khoo to his friends) in Petaling Jaya, Malaysia. I think I'll post something on it at a later date.

For now, I want to post here the link to an interesting article on "voter pyschology" since there have been appeals made by some politicians here in the run-up to GE2011 to voters to vote in their self-interest. The conventional wisdom in Singapore's political discourse is that heartlanders are more likely to be persuaded by appeals to their material self-interests, like estate upgrading. But then, how does that explain the consistently pro-opposition results in Hougang and Potong Pasir to date?

Also, the self-interest of the middle class, especially the upper middle class, is to identify with the party that has -- admittedly arguably -- unhindered its interests, goals and aspirations. Yet, in this current general election, a lot of to-the-wire speculation has been going on about Holland-Bukit Timah GRC, undeniably a ward with a strong middle class enclave.

The article in the link below has the provocative heading, "Emotion trumps logic in the voting booth". Read and ponder:

http://current.com/1q18c4c