In the first semester of my freshman year, I could count on a new acquaintance asking me what my major is. It’s a good conversation starter; from that question, you can ask someone what they want to do for a career, or what made him or her decide on that major. Knowing someone’s major opens up a treasure chest of information about a person’s interests and desires and ambitions.

Knowing I’m a psychology major, one might guess that I am a people person or that I want to be a counselor; both of these are, as it turns out, incorrect. But further discussion might cue someone in to the fact that I am more interested in research, particularly in the neuroeconomics sphere.

These days, fewer people ask me to what I devote fifteen hours of my week. Perhaps this is because the question seems redundant. In January of 2017, I became the communications director for College Democrats at the University of South Carolina and began an internship for the South Carolina House Democratic Caucus; later, I became the communications director for the state federation of College Democrats.

This year, I am the president of U.S.C. College Dems and still have my internship for the caucus, but I’m considering switching over to a campaign for governor. My resume has all the trappings of a political science major, so that must be what I am.

Probably as a result of all the work I do in politics, fewer people ask me what my major is these days. And when I say that I’m a psychology major, they’re surprised. On one occasion, someone asked me what the point of my working at the State House was.

My interest in politics is contingent upon my interest in psychology. Elections are where people’s fears and hopes come alive, where voters have the chance to express what they’ve felt for the last two years. Legislative bodies are battlegrounds for psychological warfare, where everyone, especially those of one’s own party, is the enemy as well as the comrade. The national discourse proves that humans are motivated by group bias and subconscious thoughts more than reason and facts.

Politics interests me as a psychology major because it directly involves elements of psychology.