R
rdean
Guest
Seems Republicans really do like to be scared. They thrive on fear.
Differences in negativity bias underlie variations in political ideology - Google Search
Do the search and you can download a PDF titled, "Differences in negativity bias underlie variations in political ideology". I haven't finished it all, but it's really interesting.
‘Negativity bias’ drives conservativism
Using eye-tracking equipment and skin conductance detectors, the three researchers have observed that conservatives tend to have more intense reactions to negative stimuli, such as photos of people eating worms, burning houses or maggot-infested wounds.
Combining their own results with findings from other researchers around the world, the team proposes that this so-called “negativity bias” may be a common factor that helps define the difference between conservatives, with their emphasis on stability and order, and liberals, with their emphasis on progress and innovation. In the article, the researchers explained that these findings are remarkably consistent throughout the literature:
Across research methods, samples and countries, conservatives have been found to be quicker to focus on the negative, to spend longer looking at the negative, and to be more distracted by the negative.
This is not entirely surprising, as previous research shows that people with conservative tendencies have a larger ‘fear center’ in the brain and are more likely to view the world as threatening.
Elaborating further, they note:
[N]ot only do political positions favoring defense spending, roadblocks to immigration, and harsh treatment of criminals seem naturally to mesh with heightened response to threatening stimuli but those fostering conforming unity (school children reciting the pledge of allegiance), traditional lifestyles (opposition to gay marriage), enforced personal responsibility (opposition to welfare programs and government provided healthcare), longstanding sources of authority (Biblical inerrancy; literal, unchanging interpretations of the Constitution), and clarity and closure (abstinence-only sex education; signed pledges to never raise taxes; aversion to compromise) do, as well. Heightened response to the general category of negative stimuli fits comfortably with a great many of the typical tenets of political conservatism.
(There it is, the entire GOP ideology spelled out perfectly in a single paragraph.)
In other words, the conservative ideology, and especially one of its major facets — centered on a strong military, tough law enforcement, resistance to immigration, widespread availability of guns — would seem well tailored for an underlying, threat-oriented biology.
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Behavioral and Brain Sciences employs a rather unique practice called "Open Peer Commentary": An article of major significance is published, a large number of fellow scholars comment on it, and then the original author responds to all of them. The approach has many virtues, one of which being that it lets you see where a community of scholars and thinkers stand with respect to a controversial or provocative scientific idea. And in the latest issue of the journal, this process reveals the following conclusion: A large body of political scientists and political psychologists now concur that liberals and conservatives disagree about politics in part because they are different people at the level of personality, psychology, and even traits like physiology and genetics.
Cambridge Journals Online - Search Results
New Findings Help Explain Psychological Differences In Political Ideology Conservatives Driven By 8216 Negativity Bias 8217 publichealthwatch
----------------------------
It really explains a lot.
Differences in negativity bias underlie variations in political ideology - Google Search
Do the search and you can download a PDF titled, "Differences in negativity bias underlie variations in political ideology". I haven't finished it all, but it's really interesting.
‘Negativity bias’ drives conservativism
Using eye-tracking equipment and skin conductance detectors, the three researchers have observed that conservatives tend to have more intense reactions to negative stimuli, such as photos of people eating worms, burning houses or maggot-infested wounds.
Combining their own results with findings from other researchers around the world, the team proposes that this so-called “negativity bias” may be a common factor that helps define the difference between conservatives, with their emphasis on stability and order, and liberals, with their emphasis on progress and innovation. In the article, the researchers explained that these findings are remarkably consistent throughout the literature:
Across research methods, samples and countries, conservatives have been found to be quicker to focus on the negative, to spend longer looking at the negative, and to be more distracted by the negative.
This is not entirely surprising, as previous research shows that people with conservative tendencies have a larger ‘fear center’ in the brain and are more likely to view the world as threatening.
Elaborating further, they note:
[N]ot only do political positions favoring defense spending, roadblocks to immigration, and harsh treatment of criminals seem naturally to mesh with heightened response to threatening stimuli but those fostering conforming unity (school children reciting the pledge of allegiance), traditional lifestyles (opposition to gay marriage), enforced personal responsibility (opposition to welfare programs and government provided healthcare), longstanding sources of authority (Biblical inerrancy; literal, unchanging interpretations of the Constitution), and clarity and closure (abstinence-only sex education; signed pledges to never raise taxes; aversion to compromise) do, as well. Heightened response to the general category of negative stimuli fits comfortably with a great many of the typical tenets of political conservatism.
(There it is, the entire GOP ideology spelled out perfectly in a single paragraph.)
In other words, the conservative ideology, and especially one of its major facets — centered on a strong military, tough law enforcement, resistance to immigration, widespread availability of guns — would seem well tailored for an underlying, threat-oriented biology.
-----------------------------------------------
Behavioral and Brain Sciences employs a rather unique practice called "Open Peer Commentary": An article of major significance is published, a large number of fellow scholars comment on it, and then the original author responds to all of them. The approach has many virtues, one of which being that it lets you see where a community of scholars and thinkers stand with respect to a controversial or provocative scientific idea. And in the latest issue of the journal, this process reveals the following conclusion: A large body of political scientists and political psychologists now concur that liberals and conservatives disagree about politics in part because they are different people at the level of personality, psychology, and even traits like physiology and genetics.
Cambridge Journals Online - Search Results
New Findings Help Explain Psychological Differences In Political Ideology Conservatives Driven By 8216 Negativity Bias 8217 publichealthwatch
----------------------------
It really explains a lot.
