Confounding valence and arousal: What really underlies political orientation?

Tritt, Shona M.; Inzlicht, Michael; Peterson, Jordan B.

doi:10.1017/s0140525x13002744

Cited by 15 publications

(21 citation statements)

References 22 publications

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“…Similarly, Schreiber et al ’s (2013) finding that Republicans exhibit a greater amygdala response on winning risky trials vs winning safe trials could imply either that conservatism is associated with greater amygdala reactivity to the uncertainty accompanying risk taking or that conservatism is associated with greater amygdala reactivity to receiving a large ( vs small) reward. As noted by Tritt et al (2014) , given that the amygdala has been implicated in the response to reward ( Baxter and Murray, 2002 ; Murray, 2007 ; Cunningham and Brosch, 2012 ), neither of these studies definitively demonstrate that conservatism is associated with increased amygdala reactivity toward threat.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 82%

Conservatism and the neural circuitry of threat: economic conservatism predicts greater amygdala–BNST connectivity during periods of threat vs safety

Pedersen

Muftuler

Larson

2017

Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience

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Political conservatism is associated with an increased negativity bias, including increased attention and reactivity toward negative and threatening stimuli. Although the human amygdala has been implicated in the response to threatening stimuli, no studies to date have investigated whether conservatism is associated with altered amygdala function toward threat. Furthermore, although an influential theory posits that connectivity between the amygdala and bed nucleus of the stria terminalis (BNST) is important in initiating the response to sustained or uncertain threat, whether individual differences in conservatism modulate this connectivity is unknown. To test whether conservatism is associated with increased reactivity in neural threat circuitry, we measured participants’ self-reported social and economic conservatism and asked them to complete high-resolution fMRI scans while under threat of an unpredictable shock and while safe. We found that economic conservatism predicted greater connectivity between the BNST and a cluster of voxels in the left amygdala during threat vs safety. These results suggest that increased amygdala–BNST connectivity during threat may be a key neural correlate of the enhanced negativity bias found in conservatism.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 82%

Conservatism and the neural circuitry of threat: economic conservatism predicts greater amygdala–BNST connectivity during periods of threat vs safety

Pedersen

Muftuler

Larson

2017

Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience

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“…and discriminant validity (i.e., do EDA responses to threatening images differ from EDA responses to, say, positive images?). These are particularly relevant questions as some researchers have recently argued that physiological differences between liberals and conservatives relate less to threat and more to individual differences in general arousal, with conservatives being more easily aroused than liberals (Tritt et al, 2014). Second, there is ambiguity about the nature of the stimuli used to measure physiological threat-sensitivity.…”

Section: Methodological Concerns: Replicability Reliability and Validitymentioning

confidence: 99%

The Psychophysiology of Political Ideology: Replications, Reanalyses, and Recommendations

Osmundsen

Hendry

Laustsen

et al. 2022

The Journal of Politics

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This article presents a large-scale, empirical evaluation of the psychophysiological correlates of political ideology and, in particular, the claim that conservatives react with higher levels of electrodermal activity to threatening stimuli than liberals. We (1) conduct two large replications of this claim, using locally representative samples of Danes and Americans;(2) re-analyze all published studies and evaluate their reliability and validity; and (3) test several features to enhance the validity of psychophysiological measures and offer a number of recommendations. Overall, we find little empirical support for the claim. This is caused by significant reliability and validity problems related to measuring threat-sensitivity using electrodermal activity. When assessed reliably, electrodermal activity in the replications and published studies captures individual differences in the physiological changes associated with attention shifts, which are unrelated to ideology. In contrast to psychophysiological reactions, self-reported emotional reactions to threatening stimuli are reliably associated with ideology.

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“…To answer this question, some researchers have taken a personality psychology approach and focused on relatively stable, individual differences predictors of political orientation. For instance, higher conservatism has been associated with higher Conscientiousness, lower Openness to Experience (Carney, Jost, Gosling, & Potter, ), higher disgust sensitivity (Inbar, Pizarro, & Bloom, ; Inbar, Pizarro, Iyer, & Haidt, ), higher generalized sensitivity to negative stimuli (Hibbing, Smith, & Alford, ; Joel, Burton, & Plaks, ), higher aversion to arousal (Tritt, Inzlicht, & Peterson, , ), higher avoidance orientation (Janoff‐Bulman, ; Janoff‐Bulman & Carnes, ), and higher prevention focus (Lucas & Molden, ). Other researchers have taken a social psychological approach, focusing on temporary cues in the environment that shape political orientation.…”

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confidence: 99%

From Dispositions to Goals to Ideology: Toward a Synthesis of Personality and Social Psychological Approaches to Political Orientation

Plaks

Peterson

2016

Social & Personality Psych

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We review existing research on the associations between political orientation and Big Five traits such as Openness to Experience and Conscientiousness. We suggest that analyzing these traits at the aspect level sheds light on motivational mechanisms underlying these links. For example, we present evidence that only one of the two aspects of Conscientiousness ("Orderliness") reliably predicts conservatism. To account for this relationship, and to more generally describe how traits translate into political orientation, we present a new model, the Disposition-Goals-Ideology (DiGI) Model. The DiGI model outlines specific interrelationships among dispositions, goals, and ideological beliefs that help to shape individual differences in political orientation.

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Confounding valence and arousal: What really underlies political orientation?

Cited by 15 publications

References 22 publications

Conservatism and the neural circuitry of threat: economic conservatism predicts greater amygdala–BNST connectivity during periods of threat vs safety

Conservatism and the neural circuitry of threat: economic conservatism predicts greater amygdala–BNST connectivity during periods of threat vs safety

The Psychophysiology of Political Ideology: Replications, Reanalyses, and Recommendations

From Dispositions to Goals to Ideology: Toward a Synthesis of Personality and Social Psychological Approaches to Political Orientation

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