Beyond Survey Self-Reports: Using Physiology to Tap Political Orientations

Wagner, Michael W.; Deppe, Kristen D.; Jacobs, Carly; Friesen, Amanda; Smith, Kevin B.; Hibbing, John R.

doi:10.1093/ijpor/edu036

Cited by 16 publications

(12 citation statements)

References 47 publications

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“…In either case, moral conviction appears linked to the broader affective arousal directly triggered by a political object, more than to the discrete or incidental emotions that are evoked, a finding that fits with prior work (e.g., Wisneski & Skitka, ). The fact that moral conviction significantly predicts affective arousal even after controlling for self‐reported emotion also provides further evidence that biological measures complement self‐reports to better capture people's full response to political stimuli (see Wagner et al, ).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 90%

Fired Up by Morality: The Unique Physiological Response Tied to Moral Conviction in Politics

Garrett

2018

Political Psychology

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Studies provide mounting evidence that morally convicted attitudes elicit passionate and unyielding political responses. Questions remain, however, whether these effects occur because moral conviction is another strong, versus a distinctly moral dimension of attitude strength. Building on work in moral psychology and neuroscience, I argue that moral conviction stems from a distinctive mode of mental processing that is tied to automatic affective reactions. Testing this idea using a lab experiment designed to capture self‐reported moral conviction and physiological arousal, I find that conviction about political objects positively predicts arousal evoked by the objects, while attitude extremity and importance do not. These findings suggest that moral conviction items do tap into moral processing, helping to validate the conviction measure. They also illustrate the value of using physiological indicators to study politics, help explain why morally convicted attitudes trigger such fervent responses, and raise normative questions about political conflict and compromise.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 90%

Fired Up by Morality: The Unique Physiological Response Tied to Moral Conviction in Politics

Garrett

2018

Political Psychology

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“…This is interpreted as an increase in arousal. Increases in skin conductance have been reported in response to negative images (Lang et al 1993), negative news (Soroka, Fournier, and Nir 2019;Soroka and McAdams 2015), and negative political ads (Daignault, Soroka, and Giasson 2013;Wang, Morey, and Srivastava 2014), but such increases are also observed in response to positive stimuli such as a exposure to a preferred football team (Potter and Keene 2012), political party (Petersen, Giessing, and Nielsen 2015), or politician (Wagner et al 2014).…”

Section: Arousalmentioning

confidence: 99%

Hot Politics? Affective Responses to Political Rhetoric

2020

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Canonical theories of opinion formation attribute an important role to affect. But how and for whom affect matters is theoretically underdeveloped. We establish the circumplex model in political science as a theory of core affect. In this theory unconscious emotional processes vary in level (arousal, measured with skin conductance) and direction (valence, measured with facial electromyography). We theorize that knowledge, attitude extremity, and (in)congruence with political rhetoric explain variation in affective responses. In a large lab study (N = 397), participants watched video clips with left-wing or right-wing rhetoric on prominent issues. We find that people with extreme attitudes experience more arousal in response to political rhetoric and that political rhetoric incongruent with prior attitudes evokes negative affect. Moreover, we show that affective responses lead to opinion change, independent of self-reported emotions. We conclude by setting a research agenda for the alignment between affective and cognitive components of emotions and their consequences.

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“…In our sample, this variable ranges from a decrease of 0.7 microsiemens to an increase of 4.3 microsiemens. For comparison, Wagner et al () find that the mean total change in SCL while viewing an image of Obama was .085.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…However, recent research in this area has begun to explore physiological responses to political stimuli. For example, Wagner et al () show that physiological responses to images of President Obama are associated with individuals' evaluations of his job performance. We build on previous research that examines physiological responses to observing political stimuli (e.g., Daignault, Soroka, & Giasson, ; Mutz & Reeves, ; Wagner et al, ) to measure physiological responses to engaging in politics.…”

Section: Selection Into Homogeneous Political Discussion Networkmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…For example, Wagner et al () show that physiological responses to images of President Obama are associated with individuals' evaluations of his job performance. We build on previous research that examines physiological responses to observing political stimuli (e.g., Daignault, Soroka, & Giasson, ; Mutz & Reeves, ; Wagner et al, ) to measure physiological responses to engaging in politics. Just as Wagner et al () show that physiological responses, as measured by skin conductance, reveal important insights about political attitudes above and beyond self‐reported measures, we seek to investigate how physiological measures of anxiety are associated with discussion network homogeneity.…”

Section: Selection Into Homogeneous Political Discussion Networkmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Follow Your Heart: Could Psychophysiology Be Associated with Political Discussion Network Homogeneity?

Carlson

McClean

Settle

2019

Political Psychology

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Most Americans are sorted into social networks that are largely politically homogeneous. A large body of political science research has explored the behavioral implications of being embedded in a politically homogeneous or heterogeneous network, but substantially less attention has been given to explaining why some people find themselves in politically homogeneous or heterogeneous social networks. In this article, we explore the psychological and physiological underpinnings of political network homogeneity. We use social network data from an original survey of 129 undergraduates paired with lab experimental evidence that measures individuals' physiological reactivity to an anticipated political discussion. Using our original survey and a separate nationally representative survey, we find suggestive evidence that individuals who are more socially anxious are more likely to share partisanship with their social network ties. Moreover, we find that individuals who experienced a greater increase in heart rate when anticipating a political discussion were more likely to be in homogeneous discussion networks, but we do not find a relationship between electrodermal activity and network homogeneity. Aversion to psychological and physiological discomfort induced by political discussions could contribute to social polarization in the American public.

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Beyond Survey Self-Reports: Using Physiology to Tap Political Orientations

Cited by 16 publications

References 47 publications

Fired Up by Morality: The Unique Physiological Response Tied to Moral Conviction in Politics

Fired Up by Morality: The Unique Physiological Response Tied to Moral Conviction in Politics

Hot Politics? Affective Responses to Political Rhetoric

Follow Your Heart: Could Psychophysiology Be Associated with Political Discussion Network Homogeneity?

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