Characterizing conservatives as realistic and liberals as idealistic may seem like mere stereotypes, but a new study at U. Nebraska-Lincoln found these stereotypes may hold some truth.
“We found that there is physiologically a basis for these stereotypes,” said Kevin Brian Smith, a political science professor at UNL.
Smith, along with John Hibbing, a political science professor, and Michael Dodd, an assistant professor of psychology, conducted a study to see how conservatives and liberals would react differently to positive and negative images.
The study consisted of two parts: one physical and one psychological. For the first part, 50 adults were randomly selected in the Lincoln area, Hibbing said. They were seated in front of a computer screen and hooked up to a series of sensors measuring electrodermal activity — or how much the nervous system has become emotionally aroused. These same types of machines are used in lie detector tests.
Next, the participants were shown a series of negative, positive and neutral images. Some of the images shown included a sunset, a spider, an open wound and political figures.
The responses measured by the machine showed liberal participants had a higher psychological response to positive images and conservative participants had a higher response to negative images.
In the second part of the study, about 100 undergraduate students from UNL were also seated in front of computer screens. This time, the participants were hooked up to eye-tracking equipment, Smith said. The students were shown a collage of positive and negative images. The equipment measured how long the participant looked at each image.
They found that liberals looked at positive images for a longer amount of time and conservatives looked at negative images longer.
This means that liberals and conservatives may disagree on so many things partially because of differences in their biological makeup. Genes influence your brain and cognitive patterns, how you experience and view the world and what you like and dislike, Smith said.
This resembles how conservatives tend to be more wary of perceived threats, like illegal immigration, and want a decrease in government with fewer taxes, while liberals are more accepting of the government’s help in issues such as welfare and health care, according to the study’s Feb. 1 news release.
“It’s amazing the extent to which they perceive the world differently,” Hibbing said.