Is Political Ideology Hardwired?Nirav Patel, Robert G. Morrison1, Richard Matland2, Dane Wendell2

Dept. of Psychology1, Dept. of Political Science2 , Loyola University Chicago

Introduction

Methods

Results

Conclusion

Future Work

. Survey on political attitudes and personality

. Standard seven point ideology scale

. Twenty question Wilson-Patterson scale of political ideology, asks respondents for their opinion on a variety of public policy topics   

. New research in political psychology increasingly suggests that political orientation may have a psychological and biological component

. We seek to examine how self regulation and behavioral motivation mediate political ideology formation

. Two systems of behavioral motivation: Gray’s Behavioral Inhibition System (stopping) and Behavioral Approach System (going)

. BAS facilitates approach towards a reward (going toward), but also facilitates active avoidance away from a punishment (going away)

. BIS represents behavioral inhibition (halting behavior) and does not represent behavioral avoidance (withdrawing or avoiding) thus conservatives’ sensitivity to avoidance-based motivations will not be reflected in BIS scoring

. Research suggests liberals have a more cognitively flexible style, allowing them to respond quicker to new information and halt ongoing behavior

. Conservatives are expected to have more structured and persistent cognitive styles, which makes them react slower to new information in order to change behavior

. Previous studies find BIS self report measures associated with feelings of anxiety, frustration, and fear in response to cues

. High BIS is associated with enhanced attention, arousal, vigilance, and anxiety

. BAS self report measures are associated with feelings of joy, aggression, optimism, and anger

Hypothesis 1: Liberals will have higher self- reported BIS. Conservatives will have lower self- reported BIS.

Hypothesis 2: No clear predictions on political ideology and BAS 

Figure 1: Correlations of Political Ideology Measures

*vp = View Point *br = Bed rock *wp = Wilson-Patterson

Figure 2: Political Ideology (low-liberal, high-conservative) and BIS

. We find modest results for a negative correlation between self-reported BIS (Figure2), as hypothesis 1 predicted, and we find no correlation between self-reported BAS and political ideology

. Our project is still largely in the development stage, and we think interesting findings lie buried in the brain, which will be tested in the second stage of our study.

. We correlated the various measures of political ideology/orientation/attitudes and found a positive correlation between the measures. The correlations are all statistically significant and are larger than 0.50 (Figure 1).

In the second stage of our project we will use the Go/No-Go task to measure self-regulation in the anterior cingulate cortex, which has been directly correlated with BIS measures. Second, we can use cortical hemispheric asymmetry: greater left-sided baseline activity has been correlated with higher measures of BAS.

. Bedrock political ideology scale designed to tap into baseline values and preferences instead of specific public policy attitudes   

. Four question Viewpoint scale offers attitudes on competition, income inequality, public ownership, and private responsibility

. Seven item question set to measure BIS, from Carver and White, and three small sets of questions to measure three different dimensions of BAS (BAS-reward responsiveness, BAS-drive, BAS-fun-seeking).    

. 1144 emails to non-student adults employed by Loyola University Chicago (Lake Shore and Water Tower campuses)

. 303 completed surveys (26% response rate).

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2Acknowledgem

ents. Thanks to Dr. Morrison and Dane for mentoring me and guiding me along the way

. Thanks to the Loyola Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program