A horse race is a contest of speed among horses that either are ridden by jockeys or pulled by sulkies and their drivers. The 2016 presidential election has been described as a horse race, thanks to its breathless coverage of the two main candidates and the focus on key swing states. This approach is often criticized for the exaggerated importance of polls, which can be misleading and fail to consider the complexity of an issue or the potential effects on a voter’s decision-making process.

When political reporters cover elections by parsing endless data and statistics, speculating about who’s up and down in the polls — what some call “horse race journalism” — voters, candidates and the news industry suffer, a growing body of research suggests. The election is still five months away, but this updated roundup of research can help journalists and their readers understand the consequences of the horse-race-in-a-puff mentality.

The horse race is a game of chance and luck, but it’s also an exercise in power. It’s a game where the underdog can, and does, win. In a horse race, a small margin of victory can make all the difference. In a presidential election, the stakes are much higher, but the horse race coverage has often lacked the needed precision to inform voters about all the different factors that might influence their decisions.

One of the big problems is that horse race reporting tends to ignore third-party and primary contenders and give disproportionate attention to two major party candidates. A large proportion of the electorate is made up of independents, and it’s important for the national conversation to reflect that diversity of viewpoints. The horse race journalism also fails to take into account the needs of a voter in a particular state or region, as well as the effect that a candidate’s campaign might have on those voters.

Despite the romanticized facade of Thoroughbred horse racing, behind it is a world of drugs, gruesome breakdowns and slaughter. The racehorses are forced to run at breakneck speeds — a human perched on their backs urging them on with a whip and ignoring their instinct for self-preservation. They have to overcome injuries like shattered legs, ruptured spines and pulmonary hemorrhage. Some are killed by cardiovascular collapse or simply don’t survive.

To do a better job, journalists covering races must recognize that they’re a business, and that includes weighing the material costs of this sport. That means not only analyzing the polls but also examining the hidden expenses of horse racing, from the cost of breeding and raising a racehorse to the financial incentive for horsemen to push a horse past its limits. Then there are the material consequences of race day for the animals themselves: broken legs, fractured ankles and, ultimately, death. Horses do not live long enough to reach full maturity, with their bones and joints slowing and stiffening as they approach age 6. The average thoroughbred is bred for a massive torso, spindly legs and fragile joints, but it’s pushed into the starting gate at the age of 2 and often raced until its physical collapse.