’Anecdotes aren’t as harmless as people think they are.’

Literary scholar Lea Liese (Photo: zvg) Switzerland's federal elections are taking place this weekend. Who will prove most successful at mobilizing voters? Anecdotes are a popular way to achieve this. Literary scholar Lea Liese studies the use of these short narratives in politics. Though they may seem harmless, they can have explosive power. Ms. Liese, we all like little stories. Is that why anecdotes have proven so successful in politics?. Yes, I think so. Historically, anecdotes were initially not regarded as a literary genre, but rather as an easily accessible form of knowledge transference. This "social" knowledge helps to create community, leading to a sense of security and the ability to take action. Anecdotes help us to keep talking even when we don't know the precise facts. For example, when you complain that everything is always getting more expensive, probably everyone can chime in from their own personal experience or at least knows a little story from hearsay. Harnessing that is very attractive for politicians. They just have to get it started and then the discourse almost runs by itself. Is there a surge in anecdotes during election season?. Anecdotes are a very effective means of mobilizing voters. This has a lot to do with the attention economy: the parties are competing against each other and they have only a short time to win over voters. Anecdotal evidence in the sense of "felt" truth is also an easy way to paper over any holes in one's own agenda. This shows the populist potential of anecdotes. Especially in election campaigns, the strategic use of small, supposedly true stories can contribute to the spread of disinformation and fake news. Speaking of populist potential: do right-wing parties make more frequent use of anecdotes than the left?