In the March 4th, 2008 issue of the Cornell Daily Sun, columnist Ben Birnbaum wrote an article entitled The Audacity of Hype. In the article, he discusses the trend, especially of the younger generation, of supporters of Senator Barack Obama for the Democratic nomination to lack any substantial reason to support his nomination. The author even quotes an interview with a Texas senator. When asked why the senator supported Barack Obama, he could not give a valid reason. So why do so many people support a candidate if they have not done the research to find out if he is, in fact, the right person for the job?

To what this all boils down is an information cascade. When you look at the long list of Obama supporters, which include John Kerry, Chris Dodd, as well as Oprah Winfrey, it is hard not to think that they know something about him that you do not. So, like many young voters, you disregard the small amount of information you’ve researched and believe that since so many have supported Obama, they cannot all be wrong. This happens because the individuals who support a candidate see the choices of supporters who have made decisions before them. As an example, say Oprah Winfrey and John Kerry are the first two Barack Obama supporters. If Oprah supports Obama, one can deduce that she must have received a high signal. If Kerry supports Obama, he must also have received a high signal. Then, the information cascade starts, and there is a higher probability that Obama is a good candidate regardless of what signal the third person receives. To be fair, this occurs with any candidate, but the article speaks specifically about Barack Obama.

The Cornell Daily Sun article can be found here: http://cornellsun.com/node/28481