{"id":5666,"date":"2026-03-31T05:59:11","date_gmt":"2026-03-31T05:59:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/2026\/03\/31\/barton-outlines-how-politicians-exploit-voter-information-fatigue-nebraska-today\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T05:59:11","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T05:59:11","slug":"barton-outlines-how-politicians-exploit-voter-information-fatigue-nebraska-today","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/2026\/03\/31\/barton-outlines-how-politicians-exploit-voter-information-fatigue-nebraska-today\/","title":{"rendered":"Barton outlines how politicians exploit voter information fatigue &#8211; Nebraska Today"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>March 31, 2026<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/polisci.unl.edu\/person\/dona-gene-barton\/\">Dona-Gene Barton<\/a>, associate professor of political science at the University of Nebraska\u2013Lincoln, was interviewed for a March 26 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.huffpost.com\/entry\/politicians-use-short-attention-spans_l_69c4224ee4b081f8eb1480f6\">HuffPost article<\/a> on how politicians on both sides of the aisle have taken advantage of Americans\u2019 shortened attention spans to sway public opinion in their favor.<br \/>When a topic feels more \u201ccognitively demanding,\u201d she said, voters are quick to grab onto shortcuts they are offered.<br \/>\u201cIt\u2019s easier for voters to turn to trusted political elites to condense the information for them,\u201d said Barton, whose research examines the lifespan of <a href=\"https:\/\/onlinelibrary.wiley.com\/doi\/10.1111\/j.1540-5907.2011.00549.x?msockid=0a8ede4bf89b6fae2953cbd4f9ee6e32\">political information<\/a> and voters\u2019 waning attention spans.<br \/>In her study of the 2016 election, Barton found that a barrage of election news can lead people \u2014 especially Democrats \u2014 to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailynebraskan.com\/news\/unl-professors-find-election-news-linked-to-anxiety-lower-engagement\/article_996df64a-ea63-11ef-8f1a-9f97babb67c9.html\">tune out political coverage<\/a>. When such a voter encounters a memorable line or easy-to-digest stat that comes from a politician, they are likely to latch on, she said, and both sides have sound bites for each policy issue.<br \/>\u201cAll politicians do this,\u201d Barton said. \u201cDepending on who you hear from, (U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement) activity is framed as violating human and legal rights vs. removing the worst of the worst from U.S. soil. Medicaid is framed as a program designed to protect the vulnerable vs. deserving of cuts to combat massive fraud, waste and abuse.\u201d<br \/>Though it might be painful, Barton suggested people tune into the other side\u2019s cable news network of choice sometimes, for additional context.<br \/>\u201cVoters are all too often focused on who is making the statements and believing like-minded political figures without giving much thought to the policy details themselves,\u201d she said. \u201cListening to sources from both sides of the political aisle can help combat some of this.\u201d<br \/><em>Nebraska Headliners highlights Husker faculty and staff featured in major news outlets. If you see a possible Nebraska Headliner, submit the story or URL via email to&nbsp;<\/em><a href=\"mailto:nebraskatoday@unl.edu\"><em>nebraskatoday@unl.edu<\/em><\/a><em>.<\/em><br \/>&nbsp;<br \/>Some parts of this site work best with JavaScript enabled.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/news.google.com\/rss\/articles\/CBMimgFBVV95cUxQRG1GaU05VGkwSnQ1UXdQX1lXR0R4M1hsUmZnMmd2ZEFwMThfWV81ckprS1k0VU1ROGpTTDl3TlJPbkRuWjhUWEdqRU1TU1ZSVjVtWmlWR0lEbmdGcHk3dmprMXVwQ05YSlVxRXdnQzFQbW5tYWxHZmRpeTZtSGFKRnVYUU5jLVhXSG0tVUJLdU41cWR6QUt1d2t3?oc=5\">source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>March 31, 2026Dona-Gene Barton, associate professor of political science at the University of Nebraska\u2013Lincoln, was interviewed for a March 26 HuffPost article on how politicians on both sides of the aisle have taken advantage of Americans\u2019 shortened attention spans to sway public opinion in their favor.When a topic feels more \u201ccognitively demanding,\u201d she said, voters [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5667,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-5666","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-politics"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5666","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5666"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5666\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5667"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5666"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5666"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5666"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}