While a downtrodden economy and unemployment have been at the forefront of the 2012 presidential election, sensitive social issues have been knocked mostly to the background.

But these issues often sway some voters, said Bob Mann, a University political communication professor and director of the Reilly Center for Media and Public Affairs.

Mann said campaigns use issues such as opponents’ stances on abortion or marriage equality to “drive a wedge” between the voter and an opposing candidate.

President Barack Obama is pro-choice on abortion and has endorsed gay marriage, while Republican candidate Mitt Romney is pro-life and against gay marriage.

Though Mann said abortion hasn’t intruded much in the campaign this year, it came to light in recent weeks when Obama criticized Romney’s endorsement of Indiana Senate contender Richard Mourdock, who supports a ban on abortion, including pregnancies resulting from rape and incest because he said they are “something that God intended.”

By criticizing Romney for this, the Obama campaign is trying to portray Romney as far-right wing and drive a wedge between Romney and women voters, Mann said.

Though the Romney campaign says he disagrees with Mourdock’s remark, Romney has yet to withdraw his support.

On the other side, Mann said Romney has tried to focus on economic issues, steering away from approaching many social issues such as abortion.

“It’s not an issue that generally plays well for them with swing voters,” Mann said.

Republicans, though, have changed their stances from far right in the Republican primaries to move more toward the middle ground. This may account for the reason Obama performed poorly in the first presidential debate, Mann said.

While some people say they vote solely on certain sensitive issues deeply affecting them — known as “single issue voters” — this is probably not entirely true, Mann said.

“People who say they’re ‘single issue voters’ aren’t really ‘single issue voters,’” he said, explaining the “single issue” is just a “proxy” for other grievances people have against candidates.

Creative writing and psychology junior Hannah Marks said voters should not base their decisions on single issues, but she respects that it’s their right to vote how they choose.

“It’s not fair for other people to say one issue is important enough,” she said. “But if that’s the most important thing for them, then that’s what they should vote for.”

Political science senior Megan Lassere had similar sentiments, saying it can be “narrow-minded” to vote on single issues.

“People should take more issues into consideration,” Lassere said.

Overall, social issues haven’t been a huge topic this election season and probably won’t be deciding factors for most voters, Mann said.

“These ‘wedge’ issues that are used to scare voters sort of recede into the background when we’re talking about people’s jobs and future and health of the nation,” he said.