Liberals More Responsive to 'Gaze Cues' Than Conservatives
Pop science is often admittedly junk science. But get a load of this research from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, courtesy of Science Daily:
In a new study, UNL researchers measured both liberals' and conservatives' reaction to "gaze cues" -- a person's tendency to shift attention in a direction consistent with another person's eye movements, even if it's irrelevant to their current task -- and found big differences between the two groups.
Liberals responded strongly to the prompts, consistently moving their attention in the direction suggested to them by a face on a computer screen. Conservatives, on the other hand, did not.
Why? Researchers suggested that conservatives' value on personal autonomy might make them less likely to be influenced by others, and therefore less responsive to the visual prompts.
That's right. We conservatives don't respond to gaze cues because we're misanthropic, socially awkward freaks who had no friends in high school.
"We thought that political temperament may moderate the magnitude of gaze-cuing effects, but we did not expect conservatives to be completely immune to these cues," said Michael Dodd, a UNL assistant professor of psychology and the lead author of the study.
Liberals may have followed the "gaze cues," meanwhile, because they tend to be more responsive to others, the study suggests.
"This study basically provides one more piece of evidence that liberals and conservatives perceive the world, and process information taken in from that world, in different ways," said Kevin Smith, UNL professor of political science and one of the study's authors.
I generally am not a fan of studies that reduce complex belief systems to the mere consequences of biology. And yet, I think I could buy into the idea that biology may to some extent affect how individuals perceive the world.
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Jul '10
Re: Liberals More Responsive to 'Gaze Cues' Than Conservatives
It's simple, Diane: if I intend to deceive you, I follow your body language like a hawk.
If I'm open and candid, I don't need to.
Sep '10
Re: Liberals More Responsive to 'Gaze Cues' Than Conservatives
Or, on the flip side, liberals are more influenced by emotions and allow their decisions to be guided by an undue amount of feeling instead of cold, hard reason. Wait, actually that sounds quite plausible!
I find the study to be quite a compliment actually; I consider it a constant obligation to base my decisions on reason and prudence, and not the flux of my emotions.
I didn't have any friends in high school either, Diane; I feel your pain.
May '10
Re: Liberals More Responsive to 'Gaze Cues' Than Conservatives
Bill Clinton slavishly follows gaze cues, though they always seem to point down the girl's blouse. This may explain why libs always get fooled by my "make the handkerchief disappear" trick. Come on, guys, it's obviously in the [deleted by the stage magician mafia]
Oh well, better they study this stuff than try to sell us on global warming again.
Oct '10
Re: Liberals More Responsive to 'Gaze Cues' Than Conservatives
I do love these kinds of stories.
They say "responsive to others" - I say "unable to grasp that a projected image can be 'gazing' at something in the test subject's immediate environment" or "easily influenced by inanimate objects". It's all in the interpretation.
(Admittedly, my interpretation is far less likely to result in a research grant but it's still a fun game to play)
May '10
Re: Liberals More Responsive to 'Gaze Cues' Than Conservatives
Actually, it is widely believed that I am indeed "misanthropic, socially awkward freaks who had no friends in high school (or after....)
But terminal introversion, shyness, lack of confidence, inferiority complex, and the other assorted social interaction pathologies with which I seem to be afflicted do not equate to misanthropy.
Rather, we terminal introverts seek nirvana by avoiding pain, and the pain of rejection is the inevitable result of social interaction. (this would be a perfect place to insert an appropriate emoticon had Rob not banned them)
May '10
Re: Liberals More Responsive to 'Gaze Cues' Than Conservatives
Gosh, Duane. You'll always have your budgie.
Nov '10
Re: Liberals More Responsive to 'Gaze Cues' Than Conservatives
Here is another scientific finding of a similar sort: conservatives are more easily disgusted than liberals.
http://www.subjectpool.com/ed_teach/gary/liberalism/bloom2008disgust_conservatism.pdf
But the finding might alternatively been described as follows: liberals are harder to disgust than conservatives.
Re: Liberals More Responsive to 'Gaze Cues' Than Conservatives
Confession: I have the terribly bad habit of looking just to the right of a person's face when he or she speaks. This enables me to focus on what the person is saying, and prevents me from getting distracted by the food in his/her teeth or other distracting features on his/her face. But this little idiosyncrasy of mine really bothers a lot of people -- I've noticed that folks are constantly looking over their right shoulder to try to figure out what I'm staring at (which is nothing, of course). Now I have a scientific explanation for my behavior: Oh, I don't notice gaze cues -- I'm a conservative.
Edited on Dec 10, 2010 at 3:13pmRe: Liberals More Responsive to 'Gaze Cues' Than Conservatives
Aodhan:
But the finding might alternatively been described as follows: liberals are harder to disgust than conservatives. · Dec 10 at 3:12pm
There's no disputin' that one.
Aug '10
Re: Liberals More Responsive to 'Gaze Cues' Than Conservatives
In my case, that's true.
But as for the gaze cue study, think of what the participants were actually told:
'Dodd said the participants were told that the gaze cues in the study did not predict where the target would appear, so there was no reason for participants to attend to them. "'
If you're already told the gaze cues are meaningless, why respond?
And if you are more able to override your habitual response to gaze cues based on new information (being informed that they're meaningless when they tend not to be in reality), why doesn't that suggest that you're a more open and flexible person, rather than otherwise?
I am, personally, very nosy about what other people are looking at in real life. But if I were told beforehand that the gaze cues would be meaningless, I'd naturally make a game of not responding to them.
So why was telling subjects that the gaze cues would be meaningless part of the experimental design? That doesn't then measure innate response to gaze cues, but something else.
Edited on Dec 10, 2010 at 3:28pmNov '10
Re: Liberals More Responsive to 'Gaze Cues' Than Conservatives
Diane Ellis, Ed.
Aodhan:
But the finding might alternatively been described as follows: liberals are harder to disgust than conservatives. · Dec 10 at 3:12pm
There's no disputin' that one. · Dec 10 at 3:15pm
Perhaps the conservatives are attempting to avoid "gays cues"!
Sep '10
Re: Liberals More Responsive to 'Gaze Cues' Than Conservatives
My theory is that liberals are more visual and conservatives are more auditory or sequential. Visual people are going to follow gaze cues more. Diane touched on this she tries not to be visually distracted so she can listen. I am the same way, I get distracted by visuals and cant multitask.
I also agree that a factor is that liberals are indeed more social. They care more about fitting in and being accepted than conservatives.
Dec '10
Re: Liberals More Responsive to 'Gaze Cues' Than Conservatives
I don't follow gaze cues when talking to someone, and I find it rude, unless a missile or a train is suddenly bearing down on us, when the person I'm talking to finds looking at other things more interesting.
That cues me to cut the conversation short. I like people to maintain focus when I'm talking to them. It's like talking to a guy and he has to check out every woman who passes by, or a woman who checks out what every other woman is wearing.
The fact that liberals will follow and flit with their gaze illustrates what their minds are like. Argue with one. They can't stay on the subject or follow logic.
Nov '10
Re: Liberals More Responsive to 'Gaze Cues' Than Conservatives
But as for the gaze cue study, think of what the participants were actually told:
'Dodd said the participants were told that the gaze cues in the study did not predict where the target would appear, so there was no reason for participants to attend to them. "'
If you're already told the gaze cues are meaningless, why respond?
Perhaps conservatives were simply more obedient to (or less defiant towards) authority than liberals were.
One way to check would have been to issue the opposite instruction in a parallel condition: to attend to the gaze cues, in case they helped to predict where the target would appear.
Aug '10
Re: Liberals More Responsive to 'Gaze Cues' Than Conservatives
Aodhan
But as for the gaze cue study, think of what the participants were actually told:
'Dodd said the participants were told that the gaze cues in the study did not predict where the target would appear, so there was no reason for participants to attend to them. "'
If you're already told the gaze cues are meaningless, why respond?
Perhaps conservatives were simply more obedient to (or less defiant towards) authority than liberals were.
That is itself a common meme, but I question it to some extent. Are liberals really less worshipful of authority than we, or do we just accept different authorities?
For example, as a teen I was less stereotypically "rebellious", but also more likely to ask impertinent questions of teachers -- and for a stereotypically "good girl", I spent a ton of time in the principal's office. So was I really any less rebellious, or did I just rebel differently?
Was I perhaps more rebellious, rebelling not only against adult authority, but the savage authority of the peer group?
I use myself as an example not because I think I'm exceptional, but because I think I'm not.
"Obedient to authority" proves hard to define.
Aug '10
Re: Liberals More Responsive to 'Gaze Cues' Than Conservatives
Diane,
I think you have had one too many encounters with "science" rooted in Adorno's "The Authoritarian Personality."
Yes, such studies and assumptions can be found throughout modern psychology, but I don't think that
"conservatives' value on personal autonomy might make them less likely to be influenced by others, and therefore less responsive to the visual prompts."
can be easily read as
"misanthropic, socially awkward freaks who had no friends in high school"
Though the study you link in your second quote can.
I read the personal autonomy statement as a positive thing. After all, if you are "less likely to be influenced by others," you are more likely to form your own opinions and be your own person. People who go against "public opinion" are some of the most important figures in history, and followers of demagogues are some of the most terrifying.
.
Sep '10
Re: Liberals More Responsive to 'Gaze Cues' Than Conservatives
Aodhan: Here is another scientific finding of a similar sort: conservatives are more easily disgusted than liberals.
http://www.subjectpool.com/ed_teach/gary/liberalism/bloom2008disgust_conservatism.pdf
But the finding might alternatively been described as follows: liberals are harder to disgust than conservatives. · Dec 10 at 3:12pm
Where do you find this stuff? That Kass fella seems to be a tight-[expletive]ed kinda guy. Regarding eating ice cream in public as disgusting? I must be a totally insensate caveman.
Re: Liberals More Responsive to 'Gaze Cues' Than Conservatives
Nathaniel Wright: I don't think that
"conservatives' value on personal autonomy might make them less likely to be influenced by others, and therefore less responsive to the visual prompts."
can be easily read as
"misanthropic, socially awkward freaks who had no friends in high school"
Though the study you link in your second quote can.
I read the personal autonomy statement as a positive thing. After all, if you are "less likely to be influenced by others," you are more likely to form your own opinions and be your own person. People who go against "public opinion" are some of the most important figures in history, and followers of demagogues are some of the most terrifying.
. · Dec 10 at 4:19pm
I meant that as mostly tongue in cheek, Nathaniel. I should've used an emoticon :-p
Edited on Dec 10, 2010 at 5:15pmAug '10
Re: Liberals More Responsive to 'Gaze Cues' Than Conservatives
Unlike Rob and many "emotisnobs," I value the emoticon. Thanks for clearing things up. Given how many pages have been devoted to saying conservatives are exactly what you were joking this study implied, I didn't see the joke at first glance.
Sep '10
Re: Liberals More Responsive to 'Gaze Cues' Than Conservatives
Nathaniel, I opined awhile ago that you can divide the conservative movement into texticons and emoticons. Do you agree?