The privilege of our free vote ERIN MOLAN

I HAVE a friend. She’s 40, successful and single and, without sounding too crass, she loves to “mingle”. She views dating as a serious business.

She invests as much time into the art of meeting the right man as she does into the progression of her career, a 22-year stint in a major finance firm where she’s now inhabiting a rather big corner office.

She’s on all the dating apps and when she likes what she sees, she “swipes right” (the “positive” response on Tinder I’m told … swiping left is apparently

“rejection”).

If the feeling is mutual she locks in a date for the week ahead. She’s not playing hard to get or trying to appear busy. It’s because she needs time to research.

The next few days are spent stalking. She will google, read, research and scroll every possible site where he rates a mention.

She’d be able to tell you what his aunty’s husband wore at her mother’s 80th seven years ago and what his second cousin had removed from his foot in 1998 (a nail by the way). She does her due diligence – and then some.

She was exactly the same when it came to buying a car last year. The links she shared in our group text were more punishing and prolific than the 10 daily videos I send of my three-year-old daughter dancing.

This week I asked her how she was going to vote. Which party’s policies so far during this campaign had resonated with her more? Which way she was leaning? Her response, and I promise I’m not using any creative licence here: “I haven’t read a word and couldn’t care less.’’

So why do so many smart, rational, impressive people not particularly care about things that will impact every area of their life … but care so deeply about things that might seem less significant?

Now I’m not naive enough to believe everyone follows this stuff like some of us in the media do, nor do I believe everyone should dedicate hours a day to informing themselves on politics. Plenty of it is boring and, to be honest, at times fairly disheartening. But what I now lament is someone not wanting to use powerfully one of the greatest rights we have in this country – voting.

There are plenty of places around the world where even the notion of democracy is so foreign it feels like a Hollywood movie. The opportunity to cast a vote and have your say on who runs this country is a privilege.

You don’t need to be an expert but if you care about the values and standards in the society your children will grow up in, if you care about how much you’re paying on your mortgage and the cost of living, if you care about having hospitals that function and if you care about waking up every morning in a country that isn’t at war, then you should spend just a little bit of time looking at what’s at stake and where you stand. It doesn’t have to be now. The night before you cast your vote is fine.

I sought the opinion of Professor Robert Hoffmann, a behavioural economist at RMIT, and the first thing he said to me was: “This is my favourite topic – the psychology of politics”.

Now aside from thinking he needs to get out more, he’s the perfect person to shed light on why my friend isn’t alone in her attitude towards this election.

He says people have two modes of thinking – fast and slow.

So when we think deliberately about politics or how to vote, the mentality is generally “my vote isn’t likely to make any difference’’.

He continues: “Economists call this the ‘public good problem’. People want everyone else to vote and to then ‘free ride’ on their civic duty.”

What if we are in quick, automatic thinking mode on election day?

“You vote according to political ‘tastes’ that are not down to research but your upbringing and, believe it not, also your genes. Like food preferences or a favourite NRL team,” he said. “Those who do change their voting patterns generally do so for more emotional reasons or instinctively, whether they like the candidate or not, so not research but likability and attractiveness, which takes mere seconds to assess.”

Now this isn’t written from a pedestal. I’ve been guilty of casting an uninformed vote in the past but this time I implore you, join me in making our vote count. There’s no opportunity to “swipe left” the next week if you don’t like the outcome, so this fabulous democracy of ours is way too important to take lightly.