Analysis of single-stimulus measurement of animal-reminder disgust reliably differentiated between conservatives and liberals

Author Rob Smith

I expect this thread reprises material from a study that Germaine has already presented. The study is entitled Nonpolitical Images Evoke Neural Predictors of Political Ideology.

The images used to evoke animal-reminder-disgust were body mutilation images.

Analysis of MRIs showing areas of brain activation, when subjects were shown body mutilation images, was able to reliably distinguish between conservatives and liberals. Conservatives were found to respond to mutilation images in ways that increased activation in areas of the brain that have been found in previous studies to correspond to increased negative affective valence.

One thing I find of interest is the strong association that two "hot button" political issues, gun control and abortion, have with "body mutilation".

The first thing I notice here is that neither liberals nor conservatives are consistently seeking to lessen or prevent body mutilation in their positions on these issues. So there is not a simple, "Conservatives seek to lessen body mutilation and liberals are OK with it" response, or the reverse, happening.

I am wondering if other issues directly associated with body-mutilation have also been "hot button" political issues in the past. Or whether the apparent links between the political issues of gun control and abortion and animal-reminder-disgust are actually coincidental.

Some other political issues that might directly intersect with body mutilation would appear to be; compulsory car seat-belt, motorcycle and cycling helmet legislation, traffic safety regulations, especially speed limits, industrial safety legislation, declaration of war and commitment of soldiers to armed conflict, militarization of police forces, readiness of police to use deadly force, laws protecting pedestrians from vehicular traffic, restrictions on walkers accessing areas containing large carnivores, air safety regulations, regulation of the training and practice of surgery, regulation of patient safety in hospitals, nursing and aged care facilities, & regulation of prisoner safety in detention facilities.

Looking at this this it appears that many issues included are not "hot button" ones but are rather seen as of being low priority/low importance.

Clearly this is a very informal exploration that just scratches the topic. But there is some indication that the possibility of body mutilation in real life is insufficient by itself to have an issue become a "hot button" political issue.

If others want to add more political issues that intersect with body mutilation in real life, or give an alternative analysis of the data and experiment then please do so.

B&B orig: 12/6/18