Sam Barnett is a 26-year-old hedge fund chief executive and pro tennis player, and also a PhD student studying neuroscience in marketing at Northwestern. His current research includes monitoring people's brains as they watch presidential debates. That's where CNN's Brian Stelter caught up with him. Barnett was showing a room full of brain-monitored Democrats, Republicans, and independents one of the Republican presidential debates, and one thing stood out pretty clearly: Everyone's neural activity shot up when Donald Trump was talking.
"Everyone in the room is sharing some sort of neural bond," Barnett said. "Everyone is feeling the same kind of attention, the same kind of underlying passion, at least." Trump led audience engagement among everyone — Democrats, Republicans, independents, women — except men; Marco Rubio engaged men slightly more than Trump. Barnett compared the Trump effect to putting dogs in TV ads. "People of all different walks of life like seeing a dog in a commercial," he said. "It's cute and engaging and interesting, and, you know, maybe people are feeling similarly about Donald Trump." More realistically, Stelter said it probably reflected Trump's skills honed over a decade of hosting a reality TV program. You can watch Barnett demonstrate his research below. Peter Weber
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
-
Museum head ousted after Trump sword gift denialSpeed Read Todd Arrington, who led the Dwight D. Eisenhower Presidential Library and Museum, denied the Trump administration a sword from the collection as a gift for King Charles
-
Trump declares ‘armed conflict’ with drug cartelsspeed read This provides a legal justification for recent lethal military strikes on three alleged drug trafficking boats
-
Supreme Court rules for Fed’s Cook in Trump feudSpeed Read Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook can remain in her role following Trump’s attempts to oust her
-
Judge rules Trump illegally targeted Gaza protestersSpeed Read The Trump administration’s push to arrest and deport international students for supporting Palestine is deemed illegal
-
Trump: US cities should be military ‘training grounds’Speed Read In a hastily assembled summit, Trump said he wants the military to fight the ‘enemy within’ the US
-
US government shuts down amid health care standoffSpeed Read Democrats said they won’t vote for a deal that doesn’t renew Affordable Care Act health care subsidies
-
YouTube to pay Trump $22M over Jan. 6 expulsionSpeed Read The president accused the company of censorship following the suspension of accounts post-Capitol riot
-
Oregon sues to stop Trump military deploymentSpeed Read The president wants to send the National Guard into Portland
