I’ve been waiting for researchers to do MRI scans on people when they vote or look at political ads. The New York Times reports on precisely this latter experiment:
“The researchers had already zeroed in on those [9-11 and war] images and their effect among Democrats on the part of the brain that responds to threats and danger, the amygdala. Mr. Graham, like other Democrats tested so far, reacted to the Sept. 11 images with noticeably more activity in the amygdala than did the Republicans, said the lead researcher, Marco Iacoboni, an associate professor at the U.C.L.A. Neuropsychiatric Institute who directs a laboratory at the Ahmanson Lovelace Brain Mapping Center there.
“The first interpretation that occurred to me,” Professor Iacoboni said, “is that the Democrats see the 9/11 issue as a good way for Bush to get re-elected, and they experience that as a threat.”
But then the researchers noted that same spike in amygdala activity when the Democrats watched the nuclear explosion in the “Daisy” spot, which promoted a Democrat.
Mr. Freedman suggested another interpretation based on his political experience: the theory that Democrats are generally more alarmed by any use of force than Republicans are. For now, Professor Iacoboni leans toward this second interpretation, though he is withholding judgment until the experiment is over.”
Here is another interesting result:
“At the start of the session, when they look at photographs of Mr. Bush, Mr. Kerry and Ralph Nader, subjects from both parties tend to show emotional reactions to all the candidates, indicated in the ventromedial prefrontal cortex, an area of the brain associated with reflexive reactions.
But then, after the Bush campaign commercial is shown, the subjects respond in a partisan fashion when the photographs are shown again. They still respond emotionally to the candidate of their party, but when they see the other party’s candidate, there is more activity in the rational part of the brain, the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex. “It seems as if they’re really identifying with their own candidate, whereas when they see the opponent, they’re using their rational apparatus to argue against him,” Professor Iacoboni said.”
All these results are on eleven data points; arguably the Times reporting is premature. But if you are looking for a cutting edge in modern social science, this would be one of my picks.
Comments are closed.