Posted on 09/20/2008 5:07:53 AM PDT by TigerLikesRooster
Startle Response Linked to Politics
More Sensitive May Mean More Conservative, Study Finds
By Shankar Vedantam
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, September 19, 2008; A09
People who startle easily in response to threatening images or loud sounds seem to have a biological predisposition to adopt conservative political positions on many hot-button issues, according to unusual new research published yesterday.
The finding suggests that people who are particularly sensitive to signals of visual or auditory threats also tend to adopt a more defensive stance on political issues, such as immigration, gun control, defense spending and patriotism. People who are less sensitive to potential threats, by contrast, seem predisposed to hold more liberal positions on those issues.
The study takes the research a step beyond psychology by suggesting that innate physiological differences among people may help shape their startle responses and their political inclinations.
The study is part of a growing research effort to uncover the often hidden factors in people's political makeup. In recent years, a variety of studies have shown, for example, that voters are subtly biased in favor of attractive political candidates. Other research has probed how subconscious attitudes among undecided voters can predict whom they will eventually support, and how the speed with which voters answer poll questions can predict the depth of their commitment to one candidate or another.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
BOO!
In the wild, animals who don’t react to danger quickly are called “dinner”.
And they say liberals are the sensitive ones...
...And it’s conservatives that are always running around metaphorically screaming “The sky is falling, we’re all gonna die!!!!!!”?
Horsefeathers.
I visited SF several times and noticed they seemed deaf. Loud noises didn't faze them! Now I know why.
These people are pathetic.
Never ending slander of conservatives.
Tell conservatives, which are the majority, in the military that line... These “researches” are so blinding by their own bias that can’t see past their nose.
Well, it's true that liberals never see the threats from communism, islamofacism, illegal immigration, nuclear Iran/Iraq, or "encouraging" lenders to give loans to people who can't pay for them. Maybe it's just that there brains have been fried on LSD and cocaine.
Sounds like he just DID say response to threat is more normal.
Remind me again who it is who’s running around screeching over a PTA/hockey mom.
Liberals are oblivious to the dangers of socialism but are as sensitive as cat whiskers to fascism, which they imagine is hiding around every corner and under their bed. Liberals are able to detect fascism in lapel pins, fireworks displays, tricolored buntings, pride in American athletics, literal interpretation of the Constitution, belief in free markets, dislike of the nannystate, racial colorblindness, going to church, having kids, owning a gun, pride in the military, disliking our enemies, living in states other than NY and CA, posting on FR, etc..
If this is true, that explains why liberals are more likely to have the boiling frog experience... Next thing they know, everything--including their lives--is gone.
Every election cycle there are “scientific” stories about how conservatives have less developed brains than liberals.
Right. That's the spin they put on. On the other hand, upon careful reading, this article could actually imply
how conservatives have less likely to go extinct than liberals.
What the authors of the study don't know, obviously, is that it is they who are sitting in the petri dish being studied. It's why they are always screaming: Let me out! Let me out!
I am shocked! Shocked I tell you!
I always thought it was effluence that they bred in.
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