Liberals Flinch Less, Conservatives More, study finds

[Bigleaf]

In an interview last week, U.S. vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin talked a lot about blinking.

"You can't blink" and "we must not blink," Republican John McCain's nominee told ABC News anchor Charles Gibson in response to questions about her readiness for office and the fight against terrorism.

But a new study in the prestigious journal Science says that people with right wing views blink and flinch far harder than liberals when confronted with startling stimuli.

In the first study to directly link politics and physiology, the University of Nebraska led study suggests that people who hold conservative views on things like foreign policy and gun control, are more frightened than those with a more left-leaning bent on those issues.

Researchers then measured the strength of the study subjects' "startle reflexes" through the strength of their blink responses and electrical activity on their skin when confronted with startling images or noises.

The study found that people who held more "protective" views on theses issues - those who would limit immigration or prefer a more unfettered right to be armed - had stronger startle reflexes to the stimuli.

In other words, they not only blinked, they blinked harder.

http://www.thestar.com/sciencetech/article/501578

[jpgray]

1. Fear is the quintessential fuel of authoritarianism

It's what makes the "rugged individualism" pageantry nonsense of the GOP all the more laughable.

[quiet.american]

2. Proof was inside the RNC convention- they looked terrified to find actual Iraq vets protesting them

[tanyev]

3. Huh. They really are lily-livered cowards.

[fascisthunter]

4. I'm Not Surprised... hence the exagerated macho act

[varun]

5. fear is the keyword

conservatives are more fearful of the unknown.

[xchrom]

6. recommend -- conservative = being fearful. nt

[Gruenemann]

7. That explains...

...why they're called "reactionaries."

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

8. Conservatism is at its core a fear-based ideology.

They are afraid of damn near everything: they fear people who are different from them in any way; different religions, different customs; different races -- all of these are frightening and therefore bad and to be despised. Most of all they are afraid of change, and anything that might lead to change is bad and dangerous. That's why they are so eager to go to war: to destroy whatever is foreign and strange, because those things are perceived as threatening. Conservatives believe people are inherently evil (project, much?), and therefore their default position with respect to all "other" people is to fear and hate them.

They are total chickenshits about everything.

[RoccoR5955]

9. I have noticed this in real life...

All those people who put on a macho act, are actually the most cowards.
I wish that they would do something about the size of a guy's vehicle, and the size of a certain body part. I am sure that they would see an inverse between the size of the organ, and the size of the vehicle.

[Fuzz]

10. But but it's because liberals are always stoned!!!!!

Right?@!?!?!?!?!!


:sarcasm:

[FiveGoodMen]

11. If only!

[Ian David]

12. Conservatives suffer from Authoritarian Personality Disorder. n/t

[NightWatcher]

13. Liberals make better lovers

I've had both and can affirm to the statement.

A liberal makes sure that you get yours.
A con rolls over and goes to sleep after getting theirs.