The political left rolls with the good and the political right confronts the bad: connecting physiology and cognition to preferences

Authors

Michael D. Dodd, University of Nebraska-LincolnFollow
Amanda Balzer, University of Nebraska-Lincoln
Carly M. Jacobs, University of Nebraska-Lincoln
Michael W. Gruszczynski, University of Nebraska-Lincoln
Kevin B. Smith, University of Nebraska-LincolnFollow
John R. Hibbing, University of Nebraska-LincolnFollow

ORCID IDs

Michael D. Dodd

Date of this Version

2012

Citation

Phil. Trans. R. Soc. B (2012) 367, 640–649

Comments

Copyright 2012 The Royal Society

Abstract

We report evidence that individual-level variation in people’s physiological and attentional responses to aversive and appetitive stimuli are correlated with broad political orientations. Specifically, we find that greater orientation to aversive stimuli tends to be associated with right-of-centre and greater orientation to appetitive (pleasing) stimuli with left-of-centre political inclinations. These findings are consistent with recent evidence that political views are connected to physiological predispositions but are unique in incorporating findings on variation in directed attention that make it possible to understand additional aspects of the link between the physiological and the political.