See through political illusions

A WhatsApp message recently claimed that the Government of India in collaboration with an organisation is providing work from home opportunities. The Press Information Bureau (PIB) later clarified that no such announcement was made by the Centre, while asking people not to engage with such fraudulent links. Another message stated that the Centre would provide free internet connection to 100 million users. This was also a fake.

A new study by researchers at North Carolina State University shows that most Internet users are unable to distinguish genuine popup warning messages from false ones – even after repeated mistakes. The fake ones were designed to trick users into downloading harmful software. The study examined the responses of undergraduate students to real and fake warning messages. Participants were fooled by the fake messages 63 per cent of the time, hitting the 'OK' button in the message box despite being told that some of what they would be seeing would be false. That is about tricksters.

Psychologists have analysed perceptual systems for more than a century. Vision and hearing have received the most attention by far, but other perceptual systems, like those for smell, taste movement, balance, touch, and pain, have also been studied extensively. Perception scientists use a variety of approaches to study these systems – they design experiments, study neurological patients with damaged brain regions, and create perceptual illusions that toy with the brain's efforts to interpret the sensory world.

Creation and testing of perceptual illusions has been a fruitful approach to the study of perception – particularly visual perception – since the early days of psychology. People often think that visual illusions are simply amusing tricks that provide us with entertainment.

Many illusions are fun to experience. However, the same cannot be said about the politicians, particularly in our country. The illusionary worlds they create using their oratory skills, aided and abetted by their chamberlains and courtiers' idea-promotion skills, have devastating effects on the lives of the people in the long run. The financial doles being offered by the State governments fall under this category of 'harmful and dangerous substances' and should be banned forever.

Agreed, it is the duty of the governments to uplift the downtrodden. But the methods adopted are at best temporary and do not really help the families of the deprived. Free power to farmers is yet another. In fact, no farmer in the country would seek free power. He would be happy if quality power is given to him for the promised hours. He would be happy with market interventionary methods of the governments that ensure him quality seed supply, assured irrigation potential and right price to his produce. Yet, the emphasis is always on throwing freebies and in reducing an honest person into a dependent.

Much debate has been raging on the free schemes being showered on the people of the Telugu States by the governments. However, reason and logic always remain elusive to the governments as well those who keep demanding the freebies. There is nothing to establish that direct cash transfers truly alter the lives of people. Wish there is a fact-check on the promises of the politicians and its impact.