BBC: The science behind America's red/blue divide

[U of M Dem]

Researchers at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln are studying liberals' and conservatives' reactions to happy or pleasant photographs and scary or sad ones in an effort to learn more about the cognitive underpinnings of political preference.

The findings? Conservatives tend to concentrate more on images considered to be negative, while liberals' eyes tend to linger on positive images, says political science professor John Hibbing.

The BBC's Matt Danzico visited the university, where the researchers were employing eye-tracking kit on subjects who were also asked to fill out a political questionairre.

Video [link:http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-16770593|

[gopiscrap]

1. Interesting

[xfundy]

2. Makes sense.

They always go out of their way to FIND things to be pissed off about. They aren't happy unless they are angry.

[libodem]

3. Pubs seem to have

A greater capacity for disgust. They court offence and revel in outrage. They want all their "freedoms" and the government off their back.

But they will be gunning for your freedom and try to use the government to legislate morality to manage their intolerance.

Or they might kill your cat.

[DCKit]

4. It's called "empathy".

We don't like the ugly, scary and gruesome shit.

It would be interesting to find out if there were ever a serial killer who identified as a Democrat.