#ThisPsychMajor

Personally, I've come to believe that the presidential election season is just about the best reality TV on air today. Dozens of candidates throw their proverbial hats into the presidential ring and, with the backing of their favorite millionaire friends and Super PACs, wade through the endless gauntlet of debates, political rallies, and media interviews towards their party's nomination. The road to the White House is long and winding. And totally entertaining for the rest of us as each presidential hopeful does his or her best to nimbly navigate the Hunger Games-like political landscape.

Until they don't. Enter Jeb Bush. Now, while I will remain agnostic about Mr. Bush's particular brand of politics I just couldn't ignore his huge gaffe two weeks ago. Well, actually, YOU all couldn't let me ignore it, seeing as two students emailed me the same link. (Thanks, by the way!) So, I couldn't resist an impromptu guest blog to get the word out.

Here's the back story: During a town hall in South Carolina, Mr. Bush described his thoughts on how colleges can improve the job prospects for Americans:

"Universities ought to have skin in the game. When a student shows up, they ought to say ‘Hey, that psych major deal, that philosophy major thing, that’s great, it’s important to have liberal arts … but realize, you’re going to be working a Chick-fil-A.”

Yup. You read that right. Jeb's crystal ball predicts that you will be flinging antibiotic-filled chicken breasts for a living by virtue of your interest in mastering the science of human behavior. Predictably, the Twittersphere blew up in retaliation, as people took to #ThisPsychMajor to send Jeb more "data" about where psych majors really end up.

Led by the charge of clinical psychologist, Dr. Ali Mattu, hashtag psychology (f)activism has generated more than a few zingers:

Man, I love it when psych majors rep-re-SENT! In fact, I might even love it more than that time when hundreds of female academics posted snarky (scathing?) Amazon reviews about the "Sexy PhD Costume" last Halloween. The political blunders will most certainly continue. But, hopefully politicians have learned to think twice before scapegoating psych majors for the economic woes they helped to create.

[Prof. Chaudoir]