JEDDAH, 1 December 2006 — It’s official: If you are part of the 32 percent of the polled American public that still thinks President George Bush is the best thing since sliced bread, perhaps you should consider checking into a insane asylum.
A study recently conducted by a graduate student at Southern Connecticut University showed that mentally ill patients were more likely to have voted for George Bush in the last presidential race. Graduate student Christopher Lohse, SCSU psychology professor Jaak Rakfelt and statistical analyst Misty Ginacola studied a group of psychiatric outpatients and found that the more severe the delusional thinking, the more likely that person was to declare his or her support for Bush.
Interviewed recently by the New Haven Advocate newspaper, Lohse said that the research they were doing was unrelated to these findings, but he theorizes that the more psychotic the patient, the more likely he or she is to unquestionably embrace an authoritarian leader telling them what’s what in the world.
Incidentally, or perhaps predictably, Bush supporters in the study exhibited more ignorance about what’s what in the world. “Bush supporters had significantly less knowledge about current issues, government and politics than those who supported Kerry,” the study says.
The researchers said the results are supported by a study in 1977 that found mentally ill patients were more likely to have supported Richard Nixon over George McGovern.
