Surprise! Emotions and biases have a lot to do with politics
According to a Washington Post article, [Study Ties Political Leanings to Hidden Biases] new studies by psychologists demonstrate the emotional aspects of political choice. Political choice is related to bias, with conservatives having stronger admitted and denied biases against blacks
The analysis found that substantial majorities of Americans, liberals and conservatives, found it more difficult to associate black faces with positive concepts than white faces — evidence of implicit bias. But districts that registered higher levels of bias systematically produced more votes for Bush.
Another study by Drew Westen of Emory U. [see his Laboratory of Personality and Psychopathology] demonstrated that people of both parties spotted hypocrisy and inconsistency in ads supporting candidates opposed by the research participants, but could not spot inconsistencies that supported candidates they supported. Brain imaging demonstrated that the brain areas that were activated are those associated with “rewards”, as in addictions, not those associated with logical reasoning.
February 2nd, 2006