Revista Científica Interdisciplinaria Investigación y Saberes

2022, Vol. 12, No. 1 e-ISSN: 1390-8146

Published by: Luis Vargas Torres Technical University

How to cite this article (APA

): Valdez, A., Huerta, D. (2022) Cognitive Voter Window: A Methodological

Proposal to Better Understand Voters, Revista Científica Interdisciplinaria Investigación y Saberes, 12(1)

24-38

Cognitive Voter Window: A Methodological Proposal to Better

Understand Voters

Ventana Cognitiva del Elector: Una Propuesta Metodológica para Conocer Mejor a los

Votantes

Andres Valdez Zepeda

Doctorado en estudios latinoamericanos, Universidad de Guadalajara. andres.zepeda@cusur.udg.mx, ORCID: 0000-0002-4287-

2638

Delia Amparo Huerta Franco

Maestra en administración de la educación, Centro Universitario de Ciencias Económicas Administrativas de la Universidad de

Guadalajara. avaldezepeda@gmail.com, ORCID: 0000-0003-4948-0626

The article proposes a new methodology for the knowledge of

the electorate, coming from the field of psychology, which can

serve as part of the inputs to define political communication

strategies to win elections. By knowing the electorate better,

one has a competitive advantage that can be decisive in winning

an electoral campaign. The importance of voter knowledge is

exemplified by describing the cases of the presidential elections

in Colombia and Mexico in 2018. It is concluded that the

cognitive window of the voter enables a better knowledge of

the voters, and consequently, can help to improve the strategic

sense in the struggle to occupy spaces of public representation

in democratic regimes.

Keywords:

Voter's cognitive window, methodology, citizens,

electoral campaigns, democratic systems, presidential election

Resumen

El artículo propone una nueva metodología para el

conocimiento del electorado, proveniente del campo de la

psicología, misma que puede servir como parte de los insumos

Abstract

Received 2021-02-5

Revised 2021-08- 08

Accepted 2021- 11-2

Published 2022-01- 04

Corresponding Author

Andres Valdez Zepeda

andres.zepeda@cusur.udg.mx

Pages: 24-38

https://creativecommons.or

g/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/

Distributed under

Cognitive Voter Window: A Methodological Proposal to Better Understand Voters

Revista Científica Interdisciplinaria Investigación y Saberes , /2022 / / , Vol. 12, No. 1

para definir las estrategias de comunicación política que

permita ganar elecciones. Al conocer mejor al elector, se cuenta

con una ventaja competitiva que puede ser determinante para

ganar una campaña electoral. Se ejemplifica la importancia del

conocimiento del elector describiendo los casos de las

elecciones presidenciales en Colombia y México en el 2018. Se

concluye, que la ventana cognitiva del elector posibilita un

mejor conocimiento de los votantes, y en consecuencia, puede

ayudar a mejorar el tino estratégico en la lucha por ocupar

espacios de representación pública en regímenes de cuño

democrático.

Palabras clave:

Ventana cognitiva del elector, metodología,

ciudadanos, campañas electorales, sistemas democráticos,

elecciones presidenciales

Introduction

Since the time of the Caesars, during the Roman democracy, the need

to know the voters during political campaigns was raised, since there

was the intuition that from a deep knowledge of the citizens, it would

be much easier to propose the necessary strategies to persuade them

and be able to win their vote. In this regard, Quintus Cicero wrote in

64 B.C. the Electoral Campaign Manual to help his brother, Marcus

Tullius Cicero, to win the election for the Roman consulship, a high

position of public representation.

In this campaign manual, Quintus Cicero points out "There are three

things in particular that lead men to show a good disposition and to

give their support in an election; namely, benefits, expectations and

sincere sympathy. It is necessary to study carefully in what way these

resources can be availed of." That is to say, Quintus Cicero already

raised since 64 B.C. the need to know the voters in depth in order to

use this knowledge to propose the strategy to win the elections.

Cognitive Voter Window: A Methodological Proposal to Better Understand Voters

Revista Científica Interdisciplinaria Investigación y Saberes , /2022 / / , Vol. 12, No. 1

Nowadays, there are several methodologies used in the field of

politics, whose main objective is to know voters in depth in order to

use this knowledge to articulate strategies to persuade them and thus

obtain their vote. Thus, before and during electoral campaigns, a

series of quantitative and qualitative or mixed methodologies are

used, seeking to know the motivations, reasons and non-reasons of

voters, in order to influence their conduct and behavior.

One of the tools of cognitive psychology used to try to learn about

people's interaction is the Johary Window, which can also be used to

learn about voters.

In this article, the Johary window is described, as well as a new

methodology to be applied in the process of interpersonal interaction

and knowledge of voters is presented. It is exemplified with the cases

of the presidential elections in Colombia and Mexico in 2018. The

objective is to achieve a new methodological approach that allows a

better knowledge of the voters and thus to better articulate the

strategies to try to persuade them and obtain their vote.

Materials and methods

The Johary window was created in order to get to know human beings

better and to know how they interact. It also helps to know oneself

and to know about one's reputation in a given space and time. The

window is composed of four parts, also called rooms, quadrants or

areas: the public, the blind, the hidden and the unknown. The public

area is composed of information known to the person and also known

to others. The blind area is composed of information that is unknown

to the person but known to others. The hidden area is composed of

information that the person knows but others do not know. And

finally, the unknown area is composed of information that the person

does not know and that others do not know.

The public area is made up of that which is known by oneself and also

Cognitive Voter Window: A Methodological Proposal to Better Understand Voters

Revista Científica Interdisciplinaria Investigación y Saberes , /2022 / / , Vol. 12, No. 1

by others. That is, it is the part of ourselves that others also know. The

blind area is that which we do not know about ourselves, but which is

known to others. That is, it is the part that others perceive but we do

not. What others know about us and do not tell us or say. It is the

impression we make on others. The hidden area is that which is

known to oneself but not to others. What we know about ourselves

but do not want to share with others (feelings, ideas, secrets, fears,

etc.). And the unknown area is what we do not know about ourselves

and what others do not know about us. It is the most mysterious part

of the sub-conscious and that neither oneself nor others can perceive.

It is a kind of hidden capacities and abilities that we have but we are

not conscious of.

In the business area, the Johary window is very useful to know how

customers interact with brands and in the processes of improving

reputation, image, perception and personal branding.

In addition, this methodology is very good to know the human

interaction process and to improve the communication processes and

the perspective of interpersonal relationships, since it uses two very

important points of view. The Self and the Others. That is, the internal

and external point of view, allowing self-evaluation and feedback.

Based on Johary's window, we can work on the construction of a new

tool to try to better understand the processes of interaction and

communication in an electoral campaign and, above all, it allows us

to better understand voter behavior, which is an important cognitive

basis to be able to propose a successful strategy during campaigns.

For this, it is necessary to build a new window formed by four areas

(very similar to Johary's window). These are: the public area, the

private area, the unknown area and the hidden area.

The public area is constituted by information that, as its name

indicates, is of a public nature or that can be public by being obtained

through the use of diverse research methods of a quantitative or

qualitative nature. The private area is constituted by information that

we generally do not know about the voter, but if we investigate it

properly we can obtain such information through different research

methods and strategies. The unknown area is constituted by

Cognitive Voter Window: A Methodological Proposal to Better Understand Voters

Revista Científica Interdisciplinaria Investigación y Saberes , /2022 / / , Vol. 12, No. 1

information that we do not know about the voter. And the hidden area

is constituted with information that we do not know about the voter

and that, as its name indicates, the voter hides from us. These areas

are illustrated in the following diagram.

Figure 1.

The VAZA Window

Source: Prepared by Andrés Valdez Zepeda, 2018.

The public area: What we know about the voter. It is public

knowledge and is obtained by information that is published mainly in

statistics, mass media and social networks. For example, average age,

sex, place of origin, level of employment, per capita income, religion,

social class, etc. It is knowledge that is available in censuses, reports,

surveys and social networks.

b. The private area: What is private but generally made public by the

voter. It is a specific knowledge of the voter that is generally obtained

through a process of research by opinion polls and qualitative and

quantitative studies on his behavior and political preference. For

example, it is information that the voter can keep confidential but

generally makes public about his electoral preference, voting habits,

political militancy, party identity and ideology. It also includes

information about their beliefs, values, attitudes, motivations and

•Lo que no

nos dice el

elector

•Lo que no

conocemos

del elector

•Lo que nos

dice el

elector

•Lo que

conocemos

del elector

Area Pública Area Privada

Area

Oculta

Area

Desconocida

Cognitive Voter Window: A Methodological Proposal to Better Understand Voters

Revista Científica Interdisciplinaria Investigación y Saberes , /2022 / / , Vol. 12, No. 1

behavior, as well as their electoral loyalty and level of vulnerability to

seduction, courtship and persuasion strategies by parties and

candidates.

c. The unknown area: What we do not know about the voter. This is

more precise information about the voter's capacity for indignation,

the magnitude of his or her anger, the degree of satisfaction or

dissatisfaction with the government and the politicians in office, his or

her party affiliations and phobias, as well as his or her political

sympathies and antipathies. This information can be obtained through

indirect means such as interviews with relatives, neighbors, friends of

the voter and through what is known as "data mining" on what the

voter does and publishes in his social networks.

The hidden area: What the voter does not tell us. It is information

about their real intentions, their true preference, about the

motivations of their behavior, their prejudices, traumas and

resentments in relation to politics and their interests. This information

can be obtained by indirect means through the analysis of the

elector's behavior, electoral results and neuro-marketing.

These four windows allow us to have a broader and deeper

knowledge of the voter, using both traditional and modern research

methodologies of voter behavior. Knowledge of the public and

private area of the voter is important but insufficient. Therefore,

relevant information is also required about what has been called here

the unknown area and, above all, about the hidden area. The

knowledge obtained with this new instrument allows the design and

articulation of the strategy, since knowledge underpins any successful

strategy.

Results

In order to try to exemplify the use of both the Cognitive Voter

Window and the CEA Technique, two election cases are presented

below, in which the deep knowledge of voters and their motivations

Cognitive Voter Window: A Methodological Proposal to Better Understand Voters

Revista Científica Interdisciplinaria Investigación y Saberes , /2022 / / , Vol. 12, No. 1

supported the strategy that, applied during the campaigns, led to the

triumph of two presidential elections in Latin America.

a. The case of the Colombian presidential election, 2018.

The presidential elections in Colombia were held, in its second round,

on June 17, 2018. Iván Duque, candidate of the Democratic Center

Party, won this election with 53.98 percent of the votes, against

Gustavo Petro, candidate of Colombia Humana, who obtained 41.81

percent of the votes.

This result can be explained by an adequate diagnosis of the feelings

of Colombian citizens and an adequate segmentation of markets, in

addition to the strategic outline that allowed mobilizing the fear and

anger of the voters towards the ballot box to turn them into electoral

victory. That is to say, there was an adequate diagnosis of the

Colombian voter, including information on "what we traditionally do

not know" and "what the electro does not say" in traditional surveys,

but which is intuited or known by indirect means or sources. Thus, in

this presidential election, the deep knowledge of the voter was the

determining factor in defining the strategy, which, when put into

action, made possible the victory of the candidate of the Democratic

Center Party.

In the first place, Duque's strategists took advantage of the crisis in

Venezuela, a neighboring and close country, to frighten Colombian

voters, advertising that, if the candidate of the left, Gustavo Petro,

won, Colombia would be like Venezuela, with serious economic and

political problems. In fact, in their advertisements in electronic media,

social networks and billboards throughout the country it was stated

"so that Colombia is not another Venezuela, vote for Duque". That is

to say, they knew in depth and in advance of the elections, the fear

generated among voters by the current situation in Venezuela, which

they used for political-electoral purposes.

Secondly, Duque managed to mobilize the most conservative sector

in Colombia that in recent years has opposed the peace process,

unifying with his message the radical and moderate right, as well as

the different Christian and Catholic churches that oppose abortion,

Cognitive Voter Window: A Methodological Proposal to Better Understand Voters

Revista Científica Interdisciplinaria Investigación y Saberes , /2022 / / , Vol. 12, No. 1

same-sex marriage and the use of marijuana for medicinal and

recreational purposes, among other things.

Thirdly, Duque managed to mobilize the social discontent generated

by the government of Juan Manuel Santos, regarding the peace

process itself and the "impunity" towards the guerrillas of the

Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), by the increase in

taxes and by a decrease in public investment generated by the drop

in international oil prices, among others. In addition, Duque had the

support of former president Álvaro Uribe, who has broad social

support, mainly from conservative groups that have opposed the

Santos government and the past pacification process in Colombia.

In short, an adequate diagnosis of the electorate and an analysis of

the prevailing political context itself, through what we have called

here as the voter's cognitive window, allowed them to carry out the

strategic outline and political communication focused on specific

groups and sectors of voters, which finally helped Iván Duque

Márquez win the Colombian presidential election.

b. The case of the presidential election in Mexico, 2018.

On July 1, 2018, general elections were held in Mexico to elect the

president of the republic, 500 federal deputies and 128 senators of

the republic, in addition to elections for governor in 9 different states

or entities of the republic. According to the National Electoral Institute

(INE), Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO), candidate of the

Coalition Juntos Haremos Historia, was elected as president of

Mexico for the 2018-2024 term after obtaining 52.9 percent of the

votes.

What explains this result and what role did the CEA technique and the

knowledge of voters play in the campaign strategy that led AMLO to

victory? Undoubtedly, a deep knowledge of the voters, an adequate

segmentation of the electoral market and a good strategic judgment

were decisive in AMLO's success in the 2018 presidential election.

First of all, AMLO's campaign team detected very well the grievance

of millions of voters and the great social unrest generated by the

abuses of power, the corruptness in government and the lack of

Cognitive Voter Window: A Methodological Proposal to Better Understand Voters

Revista Científica Interdisciplinaria Investigación y Saberes , /2022 / / , Vol. 12, No. 1

solutions to the problems of poverty, insecurity and impunity of the

current political class, represented by the Institutional Revolutionary

Party (PRI) and the National Action Party (PAN). In fact, President

Enrique Peña Nieto had the highest disapproval rating in Mexico's

political history, since according to the newspaper El

Economista/Consulta Mitosfky, nine months before the end of his

term, the president only had 21 percent approval rating from

Mexicans.

Secondly, a good market segmentation, since AMLO's campaign

communication was aimed mainly at young people, the sectors with

higher education levels and those citizens who disapproved of the

actions of the current government, focusing its messages on criticizing

the high levels of corruption and the management crisis, presenting

itself as the only option for a real change for Mexico.

Thirdly, AMLO's strategic good sense, which included the creation of

strategic alliances with other political parties (Partido del Trabajo and

Partido Encuentro Social), with social organizations and diverse social

and political leaders, in addition to moderating his discourse, being

more inclusive and building a dynamic and strong structure for the

promotion, care and defense of the vote, as well as taking advantage

of the division of the opposition and the erosion of the incumbent

government.

In sum, using the CEA technique and the voter's cognitive window,

AMLO achieved a milestone in Mexico's modern history, winning with

a large margin the presidency of the republic, most of the

governorships in dispute and the majority of the Congress of the

Union.

Due to population growth and thus the need for territorial expansion,

there is a need to implement new wastewater treatment plants, which

also leads to an increase in the generation of sewage sludge, thus

becoming a waste requiring treatment. The current systems for the

treatment of this sludge entail construction, energy, operation and

mechanical costs, as well as impacts due to atmospheric emissions

and noise. For this reason it is important to develop and research new

Cognitive Voter Window: A Methodological Proposal to Better Understand Voters

Revista Científica Interdisciplinaria Investigación y Saberes , /2022 / / , Vol. 12, No. 1

low-cost technologies with less impact on the environment, such as

artificial wetlands and vericomposting.

Wetlands and vermicomposting, when used separately, demonstrate

high efficiencies in the removal of contaminants such as pathogens

and heavy metals from the sewage sludge, also achieving the

respective dewatering and mineralization. Both are low-cost

technologies in construction and operation.

Constructed wetlands depend on climatic conditions for a correct and

rapid stabilization of organic matter. Within these, the

microbiological and biochemical parameters vary during the sludge

supply and settling stages, and it is therefore essential to consider the

duration of the process at the time of use. Drying is essentially due

to evapotranspiration carried out by plants.

Vermicomposting in sewage sludge leaves a product with good

characteristics to be used as fertilizer. The worms through their

digestive system process the organic matter and release a product

rich in nutrients.

The use of earthworms in artificial wetlands provides an additional and

effective aid when dewatering and stabilizing the sewage sludge for

use in agricultural soil, so this combination should be studied in

greater detail focusing on the removal of contaminants such as

antibiotics, antibiotic resistance genes, heavy metals, microplastics,

emerging pollutants, viruses. In the latter, the Sars-cov-2 virus and its

permanence in the sewage sludge after going through the treatment

process and applied as fertilizer should be the object of study.

Results

The word strategy was first used by the Greeks. It arises from the word

strategos, which initially meant general in chief of the army. This term

was given the meaning of planning the destruction of the enemy

through the efficient use of resources. The concept evolved until it

became the art of winning the war. In antiquity, Homer testified in his

classic work (The Iliad) about some successful military strategies, such

as the narrative of the Trojan Horse. Zun Tzu, the great master of

Cognitive Voter Window: A Methodological Proposal to Better Understand Voters

Revista Científica Interdisciplinaria Investigación y Saberes , /2022 / / , Vol. 12, No. 1

strategy, wrote his book, "The Art of War," 500 years before Christ,

in which a series of strategies aimed at defeating the enemy and

winning the war are recounted. Other great strategists were

Napoleon, Lenin and Mao Tse Tung, to name a few.

Today, the term strategy connotes an intelligent and creative way of

doing things in order to achieve the objectives sought, being applied

not only in the military field, but also, among other fields such as

business, sports and, above all, in politics and electoral campaigns. In

the latter field, the campaign strategy consists of a linked and

coherent set of action parameters that seek to minimize efforts and

optimize results, leading the partisan and political actions to triumph.

According to Tony Schwartz (1974), the right strategy allows to touch

the right keys to play the "comprehensive chord", the message that

moves the voter. Strategies include taking advantage of the

opportunities and strengths of the campaign itself, party (s) and

candidate (s), as well as the weaknesses and threats of the adversaries,

minimizing the risks, obstacles and strengths of the opponents.

However, every electoral campaign is won at a strategic and tactical

level. The battle to conquer the voters is becoming more intense, in

such a way that the partisan formations and, in particular, the

candidates seek strategies and tactical applications that generate

comparative advantages over the opposition in order to win the

elections, since, to a great extent, the success or failure of a campaign

is determined in terms of the strategy it uses. That is, the strategy

used in the campaign defines an outcome. It defines whether the

election is won or lost, but for that the strategies have to be well

articulated. That is, a campaign with disarticulated strategies is also a

campaign that fails.

The strategy is the general plan, a set of action guidelines that allows

the campaign to achieve the objectives it has set. Tactics are specific,

highly particularized actions and moves. In other words, strategy

involves much more general issues and approaches, while tactics refer

Cognitive Voter Window: A Methodological Proposal to Better Understand Voters

Revista Científica Interdisciplinaria Investigación y Saberes , /2022 / / , Vol. 12, No. 1

to much more specific issues. Strategy, moreover, is long-term, tactics

short-term. Strategy is macro and tactics is micro. One is the whole

and the other is the parts. Strategy tells us what needs to be done,

while tactics is how to get what needs to be done done.

According to political theory, strategy has five special characteristics:

first, they are elaborated before actions are taken; second, they are

developed consciously; third, they are purposeful; fourth, they

provide advantages over competitors; and fifth, they must always be

renewed. The only certainty is that nothing is certain. Therefore, they

require frequent reinvention, not only of strategies, but also of the

way of thinking about strategy. In other words, strategy is also subject

to change.

Now, knowledge of the electorate is the basis for the design of the

strategy. If we know what moves voters, then we are in a position to

articulate various strategies that allow us to persuade and mobilize

them to the ballot box. In this sense, the information that can be

obtained using the Cognitive Voter Window is fundamental to be

more competitive and to be able to win elections. That is to say, in

order to win elections, a deep knowledge of the electorate is required

and from this knowledge, it is necessary to design a winning strategy.

However, for the strategy to work, it is not enough just to be able to

devise it, think about it or put it down on paper in a strategic

campaign plan. For the strategy to work, it is necessary to put it into

operation and fine-tune it as necessary as the campaign progresses.

The strategy in action implies the capacity to put it into operation, to

make it work so that it generates the expected results, since a good

strategy is useless if it is not implemented according to the

circumstances and the context in which the election takes place. In

this way, research, strategy and action constitute a very important tool

to be successful during the electoral campaigns. This triad forms a

basic methodology that every professionalized electoral campaign

must follow and which is called the CEA technique (Knowledge,

Strategy and Action). Below is the diagram of this technique that

allows winning elections.

Cognitive Voter Window: A Methodological Proposal to Better Understand Voters

Revista Científica Interdisciplinaria Investigación y Saberes , /2022 / / , Vol. 12, No. 1

Source: Prepared by Andrés Valdez Zepeda, 2017.

Conclusions

In an electoral campaign, knowledge of the voter is extremely

important to be able to make the strategic outline that allows to

persuade them better and thus obtain their vote. In other words,

understanding the voter and knowing him in depth is key to winning

elections.

In order to know the voter it is important to use different means and

tools that allow us to get closer to the knowledge of his behavior and

conduct. Therefore, it is necessary to use new tools, which are part of

the so-called strategic intelligence, to be more competitive and win

the dispute for political power, under a democratic system.

One of these new tools is the Cognitive Voter Window, which is

composed of four quadrants: the public area (what is known about the

voter); the private area (what is private but the voter makes public);

the unknown area (what we do not know about the voter) and the

hidden area (what the voter does not tell us and tries to hide).

In many electoral campaigns, the voter is not really known, what

moves him and motivates him to participate or not in the electoral

Acción

Estrategia

Conocimiento

Cognitive Voter Window: A Methodological Proposal to Better Understand Voters

Revista Científica Interdisciplinaria Investigación y Saberes , /2022 / / , Vol. 12, No. 1

processes, so many candidates and political parties appeal to

occurrences or assumptions, promoting strategies without having

certainty of the impact they have on the behavior of voters.

For the strategy of an electoral campaign to be successful, as in the

cases of the elections in Colombia and Mexico described above, it is

necessary to consider the four quadrants of the Cognitive Window,

which allows a deeper understanding of the behavior and conduct of

voters. This new tool summons us and allows us to think beyond the

traditional, trying to know what is unknown and often hidden by the

voter, but which is an important motivator of their behavior.

Thus, the Cognitive Window is a new tool based on quantitative and

qualitative methods that allows us a better cognitive approach to try

to understand the voter in greater depth, in order to achieve greater

connectivity with him and to be able to touch his sensitive cords that

allow us to achieve his vote. However, the strategy must know how to

apply or operate to ensure that it generates the expected results,

adjusting to the context and the particular circumstances of the

election.

Finally, it only remains to say that although implementation is the

biggest challenge of the strategy, it can also be said that knowledge

defines the strategy. In other words, tools such as the Elector's

Cognitive Window allow us to know the electorate better and this

knowledge becomes the basis of a winning strategy during electoral

campaigns.

Reference

Cicero, Quintus (1992). Petit Manuel de Campagne Electorale.

France: Arléa.

Fritzen, Silvino José (1987). La ventana de Johari: ejercicios de

dinámica de grupo, de relaciones humanas y de

Cognitive Voter Window: A Methodological Proposal to Better Understand Voters

Revista Científica Interdisciplinaria Investigación y Saberes , /2022 / / , Vol. 12, No. 1

sensibilización. Editorial SAL TERRAE. Date of

consultation: October 31, 2017.

Lerma Kirchner, Alejandro, Báncena Juárez Sergio and Vite

Romero (2015). Marketing político. Mexico: Ed. Cengage

learning, second edition.

Schwartz, Tony (1974). The Responsive Chord: How Media

Manipulate You. USA. Doubleday Edition.

Zun Tzu (2016). The art of war: Mexico. Editorial Porrua.