Ever watched election night unfold, seen the numbers jump around, and thought, “Wait, that doesn’t add up? Is something… fishy?” You’re not alone. That gut feeling, that nagging suspicion that maybe the results are being manipulated, is incredibly common. But here’s a wild thought: it might not be a grand conspiracy, but your own brain playing a clever trick on you.
Your Brain on Election Night: A Comedy of Errors
Picture this: It’s election night. You’re glued to the TV, watching the percentages tick up. Candidate A is way ahead! You cheer (or groan). Then, suddenly, Candidate B starts catching up, then overtakes them. “Aha!” you might think, “They’re stuffing the ballot boxes!” While actual fraud is (thankfully) rare, your brain’s reaction is entirely normal, and it’s all thanks to something scientists call the Cumulative Redundancy Bias.
So, what in the world is Cumulative Redundancy Bias? In simple terms, it’s our brain’s tendency to give disproportionate weight to early, repeated information, even when later, more complete information contradicts it. It’s like hearing the first few notes of a song over and over, then being surprised when the full melody sounds different. Your brain just got really attached to those initial notes.
The Election Flip-Flop Explained (No Magic Involved)
In elections, especially large ones, different precincts and counties report their votes at different times. Often, smaller, rural areas (which might lean one way) report first, or absentee ballots (which might lean another) are counted later. So, those initial numbers you see? They’re just a snapshot from a specific, often unrepresentative, slice of the total vote.
Your brain, bless its cotton socks, sees Candidate A with a commanding lead early on and thinks, “Okay, this is the pattern. This is how it’s going.” When Candidate B starts surging as more diverse votes come in, it feels wrong. It feels like a reversal, even if it’s just the natural progression of a full count. It’s not that the votes are being changed; it’s that the early, incomplete data created a strong, possibly misleading, impression.
It’s a bit like judging a marathon winner by who’s leading after the first mile. Sure, they might be fast, but they could also burn out, or someone else might have a stronger finish. The early lead is redundant – it’s just the same partial information being updated, but our brains treat it as increasingly confirmed truth.
So, What Can We Do About It?
Understanding this bias doesn’t make election night less dramatic, but it can make you a more informed, less paranoid viewer. When you see those numbers shifting, try to remember it’s not necessarily a sign of foul play, but often just the natural process of a diverse electorate’s votes being tallied. Your brain is trying to make sense of a complex, unfolding picture with incomplete data, and sometimes, it just needs a little nudge to remember the full story is still being written.
So, next election night, when you feel that familiar tug of suspicion, take a breath. It might just be your brilliant, but sometimes easily fooled, brain doing its thing. And hey, at least now you have a fancy new term to impress your friends with at the watch party!