Title |
The Automatic Conservative: Ideology-Based Attentional Asymmetries in the Processing of Valenced Information
|
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Published in |
PLOS ONE, November 2011
|
DOI | 10.1371/journal.pone.0026456 |
Pubmed ID | |
Authors |
Luciana Carraro, Luigi Castelli, Claudia Macchiella |
Abstract |
Research has widely explored the differences between conservatives and liberals, and it has been also recently demonstrated that conservatives display different reactions toward valenced stimuli. However, previous studies have not yet fully illuminated the cognitive underpinnings of these differences. In the current work, we argued that political ideology is related to selective attention processes, so that negative stimuli are more likely to automatically grab the attention of conservatives as compared to liberals. In Experiment 1, we demonstrated that negative (vs. positive) information impaired the performance of conservatives, more than liberals, in an Emotional Stroop Task. This finding was confirmed in Experiment 2 and in Experiment 3 employing a Dot-Probe Task, demonstrating that threatening stimuli were more likely to attract the attention of conservatives. Overall, results support the conclusion that people embracing conservative views of the world display an automatic selective attention for negative stimuli. |
X Demographics
Geographical breakdown
Country | Count | As % |
---|---|---|
United States | 2 | 25% |
Georgia | 1 | 13% |
Unknown | 5 | 63% |
Demographic breakdown
Type | Count | As % |
---|---|---|
Members of the public | 6 | 75% |
Scientists | 1 | 13% |
Practitioners (doctors, other healthcare professionals) | 1 | 13% |
Mendeley readers
Geographical breakdown
Country | Count | As % |
---|---|---|
United States | 5 | 4% |
United Kingdom | 3 | 2% |
Italy | 1 | <1% |
Sweden | 1 | <1% |
India | 1 | <1% |
Netherlands | 1 | <1% |
Canada | 1 | <1% |
Chile | 1 | <1% |
New Zealand | 1 | <1% |
Other | 1 | <1% |
Unknown | 126 | 89% |
Demographic breakdown
Readers by professional status | Count | As % |
---|---|---|
Student > Ph. D. Student | 30 | 21% |
Researcher | 20 | 14% |
Student > Master | 20 | 14% |
Student > Bachelor | 12 | 8% |
Student > Doctoral Student | 9 | 6% |
Other | 26 | 18% |
Unknown | 25 | 18% |
Readers by discipline | Count | As % |
---|---|---|
Psychology | 61 | 43% |
Social Sciences | 17 | 12% |
Business, Management and Accounting | 7 | 5% |
Neuroscience | 7 | 5% |
Computer Science | 4 | 3% |
Other | 15 | 11% |
Unknown | 31 | 22% |