Conservatives Anticipate and Experience Stronger Emotional Reactions to Negative Outcomes

Abstract

The present work examined whether conservatives and liberals differ in their anticipation of their own emotional reactions to negative events. In two studies, participants imagined experiencing positive or negative outcomes in domains that do not directly concern politics. In Study 1, 190 American participants recruited online (64 male, Mage = 32 years) anticipated their emotional responses to romantic relationship outcomes. In Study 2, 97 Canadian undergraduate students (26 male, Mage = 21 years) reported on their anticipated and experienced emotional responses to academic outcomes. In both studies, more conservative participants predicted they would feel stronger negative emotions following negative outcomes than did more liberal participants. Furthermore, a longitudinal follow-up of Study 2 participants revealed that more conservative participants actually felt worse than more liberal participants after receiving a lower-than-desired exam grade. These effects remained even when controlling for the Big Five traits, prevention focus, and attachment style (Study 1), and optimism (Study 2). We discuss how the relationship between political orientation and anticipated affect likely contributes to differences between conservatives and liberals in styles of decision and policy choices.

The reliability of psychological instruments in community samples: A cautionary note

“…Of the four that did, Cronbach’s alphas ranged from .53 to .71 for promotion scale and from .70 to .86 for the prevention scale. Consistent with the guiding hypothesis, Cronbach’s alpha was lowest for a sample with low literacy skills (Martinez et al, 2013) and highest for a highly educated sample (Worth et al, 2005) and another sample that was likely highly functioning because participants were recruited via mTurk and thus had access to computers and used the Internet (Joel et al, 2014). …”

Whose Risk? Why Did the U.S. Public Ignore Information About the Ebola Outbreak?

“…Also, conservative participants reported that they did not know much (and did not want to know much) about the Ebola outbreak. The fact that conservatives tend to be more risk averse and have a stronger negativity bias than liberals might explain this finding (Hibbing, Smith, & Alford, ; Joel, Burton, & Plaks, ).…”

Conservatism and the neural circuitry of threat: economic conservatism predicts greater amygdala–BNST connectivity during periods of threat vs safety

“…High conservatism is also related to greater skin conductance responses to aversive stimuli ( Oxley et al , 2008 ; Smith et al , 2011 ; Dodd et al , 2012 ), and increased levels of self-reported phobic-fears ( Hatemi et al , 2013 ). Furthermore, participants who are high in conservatism anticipate experiencing more negative emotional reactions when imagining a future negative event, and report experiencing a more negative emotional reaction toward receiving a lower than expected exam grade ( Joel et al , 2014 ). This study found that conservatism is associated with a greater increase in connectivity between the amygdala and BNST during conditions of unpredictable threat compared with safety.…”