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

Pedersen, Walker S.; Muftuler, L. Tugan; Larson, Christine L.

doi:10.1093/scan/nsx133

Cited by 25 publications

(25 citation statements)

References 63 publications

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“…Conservativism, on the other hand, has been associated with increased volume in the right hemisphere of the amygdala (Amodio et al, 2007;Kanai et al, 2011), an area which exerts greater influence on the processing of primary emotions such as fear, as well as emotional expression than the left hemisphere. These differences in brain functions/anatomy may be mappable to basic motivations for safety and survival and explain the association between political ideology and threat reactivity (Lilienfeld and Latzman, 2014;Pedersen et al, 2018). Napier et al (2018) found, for example, that Republicans took significantly more liberal positions on social issues after envisioning feeling completely and totally physically safe, while Nail et al (2009) found that dispositional liberals took on considerably more conservative positions in the face of systeminjustice and mortality salience threats.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Optimistic vs. pessimistic endings in climate change appeals

Morris

Chrysochou

Karg

et al. 2020

Humanit Soc Sci Commun

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The use of emotion in climate change appeals is a hotly debated topic. Warning about the perils of imminent mass extinction, climate change communicators are often accused of being unnecessarily 'doomsday' in their attempts to foster a sense of urgency and action among the public. Pessimistic messaging, the thinking goes, undermines engagement efforts, straining credulity and fostering a sense of helplessness, rather than concern. Widespread calls for more optimistic climate change messaging punctuate public discourse. This research puts these claims to the test, investigating how affective endings (optimistic vs. pessimistic vs. fatalistic) of climate change appeals impact individual risk perception and outcome efficacy (i.e., the sense that one's behavior matters). The findings of three online experiments presented in this paper suggest that climate change appeals with pessimistic affective endings increase risk perception (Studies 1 and 2) and outcome efficacy (Study 3), which is the result of heightened emotional arousal (Studies 1-3). Moreover, the results indicate that the mediating effect of emotional arousal is more prevalent among political moderates and conservatives, as well as those who hold either individualistic or hierarchical world views. Given that these audiences generally exhibit lower risk perception and outcome efficacy in relation to climate change, the results suggest that climate change appeals with pessimistic endings could trigger higher engagement with the issue than optimistic endings. These findings are interpreted in light of recent research findings, which suggest that differences in threat-reactivity and emotional arousal may be attributable to brain functions/anatomy mappable to basic motivations for safety and survival. Implications for scholars and practitioners are discussed.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Optimistic vs. pessimistic endings in climate change appeals

Morris

Chrysochou

Karg

et al. 2020

Humanit Soc Sci Commun

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

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“…Since functional connectivity of premature infants of different gestational age demonstrates different development stages out of the uterus, it is worth noting that in both groups, SMN shows a strong connectivity with AUD in all states except State I, which is in line with the regular sequence of neurodevelopment of this period. Previous studies have identified multiple RSNs incorporating cortical and subcortical gray matter regions, including those located in primary motor and sensory cortices (e.g., SMN, VN, AUD) and those involving association cortices (e.g., DMN, DAN, frontoparietal control) ( 23 , 27 , 28 ). It was reported that networks located in primary sensory and motor regions are established by term, and these networks demonstrate less variability between subjects ( 29 ).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Changes of Dynamic Functional Connectivity Associated With Maturity in Late Preterm Infants

Shi

2020

Front. Pediatr.

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Objective: To investigate the changes of dynamic functional connectivity (DFC) in late preterm infants, and assess whether these changes are associated with the indicators measuring the maturity of neonates. Methods: Resting-state fMRI (rs-fMRI) data of eligible neonates was acquired with a 3.0-T MRI scanner in the Department of Radiology, Daping Hospital, Army Medical University (Chongqing, China). After the selection of functional connectivity networks obtained by independent component analysis (ICA), a sliding-window approach was used to cluster all the windows into different states. Then the differences of temporal properties of DFC between groups were compared, and the association between these temporal properties and the degree of maturity was also explored in each state. Results: Eventually, 34 late preterm and 37 term neonates were included in the final analysis. Based on their data, 5 components were located in 5 networks: default-mode (DMN), dorsal attention (DAN), auditory (AUD), sensorimotor (SMN), and visual (VN). Then four reoccurring state patterns of functional connectivity were identified with the k-means clustering method. The late preterm group dwelled significantly longer in State III (late preterm: 33.57 ± 37.64 s, term: 18.50 ± 11.71 s; P = 0.03), which was characterized by general weaker connectivity between networks. Also, the correlation analysis shows the degree of maturity is negatively correlated to the dwell time and fractional windows in State III. Conclusion: Our findings suggested that compared with term infants, late preterm infants preferred to stay in a state with general weak connectivity between networks, but this preference declined as maturity increased.

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“…Similarly, the rise of populism has revived interest in individual differences in political attitudes and their underpinnings including right-wing authoritarianism, nationalism, and ethnocentrism. Evidence linking conservatism to brain systems for threat processing suggests a biological component to individual differences (Pedersen et al, 2018 ).…”

Section: What Social Psychologists Can Learn From Trait Psychologymentioning

confidence: 99%

A Grand Challenge for Personality and Social Psychology: Competition, Cooperation, or Co-existence?

Matthews

2020

Front. Psychol.

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Like two rival siblings, the disciplines of personality and social psychology have common roots but an evolving and sometimes difficult relationship (Pettigrew and Cherry, 2012; Lanning, 2017). Both are diverse and have their own internal controversies, but, historically, the field has been divided according to two worldviews (Cloninger, 2020). Personality trait researchers favor a natural sciences approach, characterized by a search for general, nomothetic principles for understanding relationships between quantitative individual-difference variables (Boyle et al., 2008). They are sympathetic to biological explanations for trait variation, expressed in studies of evolutionary bases, behavior and molecular genetics, and neuroscience. By contrast, social constructivists are attuned to qualitative, idiographic studies of the ways in which people interact within a specific sociocultural milieu, with personality negotiated dynamically "between" as much as "within" people (Hampson, 1988). They also favor a humanistic over a natural-sciences orientation, which values efforts by psychologists to support individual flourishing and social justice (Cloninger, 2020). Neither worldview is monolithic. For example, on the trait side, variation in traits associated with the self has been attributed to motivational and cognitive factors rather than direct neurological influences (Ryan and Deci, 2017). Experimental social psychology lends itself to nomothetic theories, such as those focused on social cognition. Nevertheless, the tension between natural-science and humanistic perspectives (Cloninger, 2020) threatens the unity and integrity of the field. How can different networks of researchers get along with one another? There have been periods of direct competition: famously, Mischel's (1968) "situationist" critique of personality traits. Here, the clash of ideas was productive in leading to high-quality studies of cross-situational consistency that supported an interactionist model of personality (Funder, 2006). However, competition also risks generating empty rhetoric without scientific progress. In fact, much of the time, trait researchers and social psychologists co-exist but largely ignore one another's work, potentially missing opportunities for exchange of ideas. Happily, recent years have seen increased cooperation and theories that integrate the two fields. Often, such efforts require unpacking of the logically distinct elements of each perspective. For example, social-cognitive theory points toward psychological attributes, such as the self-schema that can be stable over time without being a direct expression of brain functioning. The grand challenge for personality and social psychology is to define the research problems for which competition, coexistence , and cooperation are appropriate. In this article, I emphasize prospects for cooperation: personality and social psychologists have much to learn from one another. However, while debate should always be collegial, cooperation may not be the answer for some topics. F...

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

Cited by 25 publications

References 63 publications

Optimistic vs. pessimistic endings in climate change appeals

Optimistic vs. pessimistic endings in climate change appeals

Changes of Dynamic Functional Connectivity Associated With Maturity in Late Preterm Infants

A Grand Challenge for Personality and Social Psychology: Competition, Cooperation, or Co-existence?

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