A Single Exposure to the American Flag Shifts Support Toward Republicanism up to 8 Months Later

Carter, Travis J.; Ferguson, Melissa J.; Hassin, Ran R.

doi:10.1177/0956797611414726

Cited by 100 publications

(104 citation statements)

References 19 publications

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“…Research has begun to investigate neural activation that underlies the processing of political attitudes and preferences (Amodio et al, 2007;Zamboni et al, 2009), including studies on deliberative processing of political statements and simulated voting for political candidates (Westen et al, 2006;Spezio et al, 2008;Gozzi et al, 2010;Bruneau and Saxe, 2010;Rule et al, 2010).Yet the neural substrate underlying automatic processing of political preferences (Todorov et al, 2005;Ballew and Todorov, 2007;Berger et al, 2008;Galdi et al, 2008;Hassin et al, 2007;Carter et al, 2011;Healy et al, 2010) remains largely unstudied. Extending earlier fMRI studies, the present studyshowed that brain responses can reflect individual political preferences -for politicians and associated parties -in the absence of conscious deliberation and attention.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Automatic processing of political preferences in the human brain

et al. 2013

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Individual political preferences as expressed, for instance, in votes or donations are fundamental to democratic societies. However, the relevance of deliberative processing for political preferences has been highly debated, putting automatic processes in the focus of attention. Based on this notion, the present study tested whether brain responses reflect participants' preferences for politicians and their associated political parties in the absence of explicit deliberation and attention. Participants were instructed to perform a demanding visual fixation task while their brain responses were measured using fMRI. Occasionally, task-irrelevant images of German politicians from two major competing parties were presented in the background while the distraction task was continued. Subsequent to scanning, participants' political preferences for these politicians and their affiliated parties were obtained. Brain responses in distinct brain areas predicted automatic political preferences at the different levels of abstraction: activation in the ventral striatum was positively correlated with preference ranks for unattended politicians, whereas participants' preferences for the affiliated political parties were reflected in activity in the insula and the cingulate cortex. Using an additional donation task, we showed that the automatic preference-related processing in the brain extended to real-world behavior that involved actual financial loss to participants. Together, these findings indicate that brain responses triggered by unattended and task-irrelevant political images reflect individual political preferences at different levels of abstraction. AbstractIndividual political preferences as expressed, for instance, in votes or donations are fundamental to democratic societies. However, the relevance of deliberative processing for political preferences has been highly debated, putting automatic processes in the focus of attention. Based on this notion, the present study tested whether brain responses reflect participants' preferences for politicians and their associated political parties in the absence of explicit deliberation and attention. Participants were instructed to perform a demanding visual fixation task while their brain responses were measured using fMRI. Occasionally, task-irrelevant images of German politicians from two major competing parties were presented in the background while the distraction task was continued. Subsequent to scanning, participants' political preferences for these politicians and their affiliated parties were obtained. Brain responses in distinct brain areas predicted automatic political preferences at the different levels of abstraction: activation in the ventral striatum was positively correlated with preference ranks for unattended politicians, whereas participants' preferences for the affiliated political parties were reflected in activity in the insula and the cingulate cortex. Using an additional donation task, we showed that the automatic preference-related processi...

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Automatic processing of political preferences in the human brain

et al. 2013

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“…Flag influence on USA elections was also studied when Barack Obama was leading the presidential race of 2008 (Carter et al, 2011). Advertising techniques have repeatedly shown that in order to influence public audiences there is nothing better than perceptual saturation.…”

Section: Flag Pressure and Intimidationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Secessionist Urges in Catalonia: Media Indoctrination and Social Pressure Effects

Tobeña¹

2017

PSYCH

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Recent tensions between Catalonian secessionism and Spanish central state erupted during the deep economic downturn that hit Southern European countries around 2010. The rapidly growing rise of a secessionist movement which demanded an immediate vote for self-determination became a major political conflict when the Regional Government decided to lead the claims to achieve secession using devices provided by Catalonian Statute of Autonomy (Home Rule). Different analyses have been used to understand such challenge: from comparisons about economic and fiscal inequalities among Spanish regions to descriptions of perceived neglect or mistreatment from the central State. Strategic models have been also applied to foresee plausible scenarios for the ongoing conflict. Despite their virtues, these attempts were unable to explain the abruptness of secessionism and they failed to identify the triggers that converted an old but convivial tension into a potentially damaging clash among neighbors. Here I present data pointing towards two psychological factors that have played an important role on the mounting wave of demands of self-determination: Intensive persuasion by local media and continuous social pressure through monopolizing the public space with secessionist symbols. If the present depiction is correct the recent secessionist campaign in Catalonia will be remembered as an example of mass indoctrination and social intimidation within a democratic context.

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“…Participants who received a single exposure to an American flag exhibited a significant increase in Republican voting intentions, voting behavior, political beliefs, and implicit and explicit attitudes, with some e↵ects lasting 8 months after the initial priming episode Carter et al (2011).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Can the behavioral sciences self-correct? A social epistemic study

Romero

2016

Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part A

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Advocates of the self-corrective thesis argue that scientific method will refute false theories and find closer approximations to the truth in the long run. I discuss a contemporary interpretation of this thesis in terms of frequentist statistics in the context of the behavioral sciences. First, I identify experimental replications and systematic aggregation of evidence (meta-analysis) as the self-corrective mechanism. Then, I present a computer simulation study of scientific communities that implement this mechanism to argue that frequentist statistics may converge upon a correct estimate or not depending on the social structure of the community that uses it. Based on this study, I argue that methodological explanations of the "replicability crisis" in psychology are limited and propose an alternative explanation in terms of biases. Finally, I conclude suggesting that scientific self-correction should be understood as an interaction e↵ect between inference methods and social structures.

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A Single Exposure to the American Flag Shifts Support Toward Republicanism up to 8 Months Later

Cited by 100 publications

References 19 publications

Automatic processing of political preferences in the human brain

Automatic processing of political preferences in the human brain

Secessionist Urges in Catalonia: Media Indoctrination and Social Pressure Effects

Can the behavioral sciences self-correct? A social epistemic study

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