Flight from freedom of choice

The political and social causes of the Communists’ success in the election are understandable. But there were also without doubt psychological causes.

What factors of social psychology worked for the Left? The Day correspondent Oleh Ivantsov turned for an answer to Dr. Mykola Korniev, Chairman if the Department of Social Psychology at Taras Shevchenko National University in Kyiv.

“A person feels like he is safe in a stable system with a minimal number of choices. And the choice among parliamentary candidates is one of them. The multitude of choices that there were simply frightens people. Radical parties as a rule enunciate what they want in language very clear and understandable to people. They appeal to symbols which people know and are accustomed to. And it’s difficult to understand what the democrats, Centrists, Premier, and President want. In a situation of choice a person has to rely on something he’s familiar with. There is always an infantile nostalgia for the past in the human psyche. Thus, psychologically voting for the Communists looks like a defense reaction to a frightening multitude of choices and to the current socioeconomic situation, a flight to a warm and cozy past. In this case a realistic, perceived alternative, real and not just verbal reform is needed. We need politicians who are reformers and in whom people can believe. And so far I don’t see them”.