Posted on 11/11/2007, 5:14:47 AM by neverdem
IN anticipation of the 2008 presidential election, we used functional magnetic resonance imaging to watch the brains of a group of swing voters as they responded to the leading presidential candidates. Our results reveal some voter impressions on which this election may well turn.
Our 20 subjects — registered voters who stated that they were open to choosing a candidate from either party next November — included 10 men and 10 women. In late summer, we asked them to answer a list of questions about their political preferences, then observed their brain activity for nearly an hour in the scanner at the Ahmanson Lovelace Brain Mapping Center at the University of California, Los Angeles. Afterward, each subject filled out a second questionnaire.
While in the scanner, the subjects viewed political pictures through a pair of special goggles; first a series of still photos of each candidate was presented in random order, then video excerpts from speeches. Then we showed them the set of still photos again. On the before and after questionnaires, subjects were asked to rate the candidates on the kind of 0-10 thermometer scale frequently used in polling, ranging from “very unfavorable” to “very favorable.”
We then compared the questionnaire responses with the brain data, and here’s what we found:
1. Voters sense both peril and promise in party brands. When we showed subjects the words “Democrat,” “Republican” and “independent,” they exhibited high levels of activity in the part of the brain called the amygdala, indicating anxiety. The two areas in the brain associated with anxiety and disgust — the amygdala and the insula — were especially active when men viewed “Republican.” But all three labels also elicited some activity in the brain area associated with reward, the ventral striatum, as well as other regions related to desire...
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
I see a few issues with this study to begin with. First the exceedingly small sample size of 20 people is statistically insignificant. Second, the 0-10 “thermometer” scale has been proven to be wildly inaccurate. The best scale to have in any situation like this is a 1-4 scale, 1 being extremely unsatisfied, 4 being extremely satisfied. This leaves no room for ambiguity or to fudge the statistics.
I’ve been discussing issues like this with a friend of mine. He’s an engineering student from England, and he sees the world in shades of gray, while I see most situations in black and white. At least that’s how we compare our views. He has trouble making decisions in his personal life because he sees every option and is overwhelmed by the choice. I on the other hand make relatively quick decisions because of my views. I think that more people fit into this “shades of gray” thinking than do into the black and white type.
This is why you need to present people with as little choice as possible in situations like this. And you DEFINITELY need to leave out a “neutral” option.
They should try beer goggles next time.
This Is Your Brain on Politics....
no brains ~ if you vote lib/dem!!!!
Scientists from a nearby era discovered long ago that the bumps on your head determine everything from personality to political outlook. It’s true! The consensus among those scientists was that the shape of the head, the various subtle shapes in the skull, and other minute difference in the bone structure are deeply meaningful. There’s even a science called “phrenology” which studies these differences in human beings.
Of course, we’re much smarter than that. Now we put heads in a little tube and make pretty pictures of brain chemistry as it happens using magnetism.
I would think that in 100 years our descendents will be including this science with feeling bumps on the head.
Do you have an idea of the price range for a fMRI scan per subject?
They are visualizing what regions of the brain are active as the hemoglobin in the blood becomes deoxygenated.
Congressman Billybob
Faster heart care: How one state did it
FReepmail me if you want on or off my health and science ping list.
Gee, what a shock that a study by the NY Times would come to such a conclusion, and then report on it. /s
Wow, what a surprise, an anti-Republican screed from the NY Times. Thanks neverdem.
God bless our veterans on this Veteran’s Day. WWI officially ended 79 years ago today.
It's not a study by the NY Times.
comment# 1: "This article was written by Marco Iacoboni, Joshua Freedman and Jonas Kaplan of the University of California, Los Angeles, Semel Institute for Neuroscience; Kathleen Hall Jamieson of the Annenberg Public Policy Center at the University of Pennsylvania; and Tom Freedman, Bill Knapp and Kathryn Fitzgerald of FKF Applied Research."
Geez... I mean 89 years... what a maroon!
Forget it, I'm rolling. :-)
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ERIC #: ED281263
Title: Nonverbal Messages in Televised Presidential Political Advertising—Pragmatic Politics with Electoral Benefits.
Authors: Conti, Delia B.
Descriptors: Advertising; Emotional Response; Mass Media Effects; Political Attitudes; Political Candidates; Political Issues; Presidential Campaigns (United States); Television; Television Commercials; Television Viewing
Source: N/A
Peer-Reviewed: N/A
Publisher: N/A
Publication Date: 1987-05-00
Pages: 27
Pub Types: Opinion Papers; Speeches/Meeting Papers
Abstract: Television politics, emphasizing emotions over rational decision making, has been accused of warping the political process, especially in the election of the president. In the incomplete medium—the collection of dots—that is television, the viewer completes the circle of communication, filling in the image with his or her own attitudes. The feeling of participation is enhanced through certain techniques: the mobile camera, vocalics, and a conversational style, as well as the projection of character through costuming, cosmetics, kinesics, and organismics. In addition, the speed of television transmission, intensified by the introduction of videotape, allows candidates to react to events as they happen in the campaign, creating viewer involvement. The progression from black-and-white to color adds a greater emotional impact to the medium and further decreases the importance of the spoken word on television. In the 1976 presidential elections sincerity was important, and Gerald Ford used lifestyle ads to promote good feeling and good living, using music to establish mood and his family to establish character. The most successful political advertising campaigns (usually the work of political consultants like Tony Schwartz, Joe Napolitan, Charles Guggenheim, and David Garth) share one common attribute: the ability to capitalize on the attitudes, beliefs, and desires of the viewer. Television persuades primarily through nonverbal emotional images, and character appears to be best displayed by these nonverbals of television. (NKA)
Abstractor: N/A
Reference Count: 0
Note: Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the Eastern Communication Association (78th, Syracuse, NY, May 18-21, 1987).
Thanks for the pics & citation.
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