Liberal or Conservative? Brain Responses to Disgusting Images Help Reveal Political Leanings

According to a new study, how much your brain responds to disgusting images could predict whether you are liberal or conservative. In a study to be published in an upcoming issue of Current Biology, an international team of scientists reports that the strength of a person’s reaction to repulsive images can forecast their political ideology. In a brain scanner, participants were shown disgusting images, such as dirty toilets or mutilated carcasses, mixed with neutral and pleasant images, such as landscapes and babies. Afterward, the subjects took a standard political ideology inventory, answering questions about how often they discuss politics and whether they agreed or disagreed with hot-button topics, such as school prayer and gay marriage. Using functional magnetic resonance imaging, scientists recorded brain activity of the subjects responding to the images. Responses to disgusting images could predict, with 95 percent to 98 percent accuracy, how a person would answer questions on the political survey. To learn more about the study, click here.