Emotional correlates of political ideology: differences in disgust sensitivity.

Within political psychology there is a vibrant interest toward the differences between conservatives and liberals, such as differences in personality profiles, cognitive styles, musical and artistic preferences (e.g., Jost et al., 2003). More relevant here, recent studies found differences in the reaction to negative stimuli: conservatives (vs. liberals) display more intense physiological reactions (e.g., skin conductance) to threatening information (Oxley et al., 2008). Moreover, their attention seems to be automatically grabbed by negative vs. positive stimuli (Carraro et al., 2011). Finally, research has described conservatives as higher in disgust sensitivity (e.g., Inbar et al., 2008). The main aim of the current work is to further investigate both controlled and automatic reactions of conservatives and liberals to disgust. Indeed, in Study 1 in a pencil and paper questionnaire (FEE/QADS, Schienle, 2002) conservatives reported more disgust sensitivity as compared to liberals. Subsequently, in Study 2 (Implicit Approach Avoidance Task; Paladino & Castelli, 2008) and Study 3 (Mouse Tracker; Freeman & Ambady, 2010) automatic reactions toward images that may elicit disgust has been analysed. Overall, results indicated that conservatives (vs. liberals) were slower in response to disgusting (vs. neutral) images because their automatic attention was selectively attracted by negative stimuli. More interestingly, conservatives emerged to be slower in approaching disgusting images and faster in avoiding such stimuli (Study 2); moreover, in the mouse-tracking task (Study 3) they described smaller and straight trajectories with the hand movements. Finally, Study 4 analysed automatic reactions toward faces expressing either positive (i.e., happiness) or negative (i.e., disgust) emotions, with an Emotional Stroop Task (Pratto & John, 1991). Results indicated again that conservatives (vs. liberals) were slower in response to negative (vs. positive) emotions. In conclusion, the present work indicates that conservatives and liberals show different explicit and automatic reactions to disgusting stimuli, with conservatives prioritizing negative information.