On the appeal of political rants

According to recent research, older consumers prefer emotional appeals.

"We find that older adults generally prefer and have better memory for emotional appeals. In contrast, younger adults tend to prefer and have better memory for more rational appeals. However, when time horizon perspectives are manipulated to be short, all participants prefer emotional appeals, regardless of age. Similarly, when time horizon perspectives are manipulated to be long, all prefer rational appeals, regardless of age," explain Patti Williams (UPenn) and Aimee Drolet (UCLA).

An immediate consequence to political marketing: as the Baby Boomers age, expect political messages to shift to a balance of more emotional appeals over rational appeals. Also expect political divisiveness to increase as participants grow increasingly emotional over time as the population distribution greys. Rants will be more popular than reasoned polemics.