Associative Learning in Politics — The Game-changer?
A recent article in ‘The Wire’ attributed the success of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) in the Delhi elections to a form of learning called ‘classical conditioning’. When one stimulus is paired to another, association takes place and one learns to predict the arrival of the upcoming stimulus. Eventually, one starts responding to the first stimulus, anticipating the following one. To understand how this worked in the case of Delhi politics, let us consider the schemes implemented by the AAP government as stimuli number 2. As Mr Arvind Kejriwal’s government introduced several schemes during their tenure, the people of Delhi started associating the schemes to the Aam Aadmi Party. Yes, you guessed it right. AAP became stimulus number 1. Soon, people started anticipating newer schemes from AAP and the best part is that they got it.
But was this association merely enough for them to win the elections? They had to make sure that people voted for them during the elections. In psychology, another form of learning called ‘operant conditioning’ makes sure that one exhibits a particular behaviour by reinforcing it. Once the association between the government and schemes took place, they made sure to keep coming up with similar schemes periodically to reinforce people’s belief that if they exhibit the right kind of behaviour, that is voting for their government, then the outcome would be better facilities and state of life.
From the most primitive forms of learning such as habituation and sensitization, our species Homo sapiens started displaying associative learning which led to the massive behavioural repertoire that we exhibit today. This was instrumental in the progress of mankind through the ages. Not only is associative learning a player in modern-day politics, but it might have been the reason behind the formation of beliefs and concepts too. The idea of religion, society and culture may be by-products of this form of learning as well. It is indeed a game-changer, isn’t it?
