Sister blog of Physicists of the Caribbean in which I babble about non-astronomy stuff, because everyone needs a hobby

Wednesday, 6 May 2015

Is right-wing politics really about fear ?

Is right-wing politics really about fear ?

"Next the volunteers were subjected to a series of threatening images, such as a frightened man with a spider on his face, and were startled with loud noises while they were assessed for physiological responses to fear, such as how conductive their skin was. The researchers found that the more easily startled people in the group tended to have more right-wing views, a result which fits with an emerging pattern of conservatives as more sensitive to negative aspects of the environment."

With the important caveat :

"If voting patterns can come from unconscious biases, does that decrease their validity? “It’s an interesting question”, says Inbar. “[If] I can explain why you like ice cream, are you then wrong to like ice cream? On an individual basis, I don’t think so.”"
http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20150506-the-dark-psychology-of-voting

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