Abstract
This paper aims to answer to what extent do heuristics impact political
behavior, using Egypt’s Morsi as a case study, in the context of the
democratic 2012 Egyptian presidential elections, this thesis was
selected as it proves how cognitive shortcuts determine many of the
political decisions and behaviors an individual makes without an actual
pertinent thought process as opposed to a more typical optimal thought
process, as for the context, it was chosen, as the multitude of pledges,
ideological affiliation and personal character of Morsi makes the impact
of heuristics visible and helps put this impact in picture, this
research is significant in that, it explores the underlying cognitive
inner workings of the individual and to what extent that impacts
political behavior, as established: according to Stlowijk and Vis (2021)
“heuristics are cognitive shortcuts that facilitate judgments and
decision making”, current literature has not explored presidential
figures in depth, especially as case studies, which will be a power of
this research, such that it makes an applicable model out of this
specificity, with its strength lying in its capacity for historical
analysis, Finally, there will be a focus on representativeness,
deservingness and partisanship heuristic .