Individual Differences in Aesthetic Experience Point to the Role of Bodily Awareness in Political Orientation

Abstract

Aesthetic chills are a peak emotion characterized by shivers down the spine and goosebumps in response to salient stimuli such as music, speech, or films. In a previous study exposing a large number of Southern California participants (n=2947) to pre-validated audiovisual stimuli, we observed a strong correlation between the intensity of self-reported chills and political orientation, with more conservative participants reporting more intense chills (despite no difference in chills likelihood). We performed this current, pre-registered, follow-up study to examine whether this correlation was due to religiosity (which frequently accompanies conservatism, particularly in the USA), and/or being among a cultural minority (conservative within a largely progressive/liberal context), by assaying demographically matched diverse populations in California (n=620) and central Texas (n=262) with identical stimuli. We also tested for differences in interoceptive awareness via the Multidimensional Assessment of Interoceptive Awareness (MAIA) scale, based on evidence for a link between conservatism and disgust sensitivity. We found that the originally observed negative correlation between the intensity of chills and political conservatism was replicated in two locations, however, this relationship appears to be underlied by religiosity and interoceptive awareness, as well as mood prior to stimulus exposure and does not appear to be a function of the political make-up of the locations (or minority political status). This study lends novel nuance to our understanding of the relationship between political orientations, religiosity, interoceptive awareness, and engagement with emotional stimuli.