title: The political left rolls with the good and the political right confronts the bad: connecting physiology and cognition to preferences.
abstract: We report evidence that individual-level variation in people's physiological and attentional responses to aversive and appetitive stimuli are correlated with broad political orientations. Specifically, we find that greater orientation to aversive stimuli tends to be associated with right-of-centre and greater orientation to appetitive (pleasing) stimuli with left-of-centre political inclinations. These findings are consistent with recent evidence that political views are connected to physiological predispositions but are unique in incorporating findings on variation in directed attention that make it possible to understand additional aspects of the link between the physiological and the political.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of Nebraska, Lincoln, Nebraska, USA.
authors.forename: Michael D
authors.initials: MD
authors.lastname: Dodd
authors.forename: Amanda
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Balzer
authors.forename: Carly M
authors.initials: CM
authors.lastname: Jacobs
authors.forename: Michael W
authors.initials: MW
authors.lastname: Gruszczynski
authors.forename: Kevin B
authors.initials: KB
authors.lastname: Smith
authors.forename: John R
authors.initials: JR
authors.lastname: Hibbing
mesh_terms: D001288:Attention / Q000502:physiology; D003071:Cognition / Q000502:physiology*; D004644:Emotions / Q000502:physiology; D005712:Galvanic Skin Response / Q000502:physiology; D006801:Humans; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D010551:Personality / Q000502:physiology; D010829:Physiological Phenomena; D011057:Politics; D012919:Social Behavior