A paper by Oxley et al. in Science (September 2008, 321(5896), pp. 1667-1670) explores how people’s inherent tolerance for sudden noises and threatening visual images relates to their political attitudes. They found that people with lower sensitivities to such disruptions (or higher tolerances) were more likely to support foreign aid, liberal immigration policies, pacifism, and gun control; whereas people who had higher sensitivities (and lower tolerances) were more likely to support defense spending, capital punishment, patriotism, and the Iraq War! Political Attitudes Vary with Physiological Traits
Although political views have been thought to arise largely from individuals’ experiences, recent research suggests that they may have a biological basis. We present evidence that variations in political attitudes correlate with physiological traits. In a group of 46 adult participants with strong political beliefs, individuals with measurably lower physical sensitivities to sudden noises and threatening visual images were more likely to support foreign aid, liberal immigration policies, pacifism, and gun control, whereas individuals displaying measurably higher physiological reactions to those same stimuli were more likely to favor defense spending, capital punishment, patriotism, and the Iraq War. Thus, the degree to which individuals are physiologically responsive to threat appears to indicate the degree to which they advocate policies that protect the existing social structure from both external (outgroup) and internal (norm-violator) threats.
