Oxley Douglas R, Smith Kevin B, Alford John R, Hibbing Matthew V, Miller Jennifer L, Scalora Mario, Hatemi Peter K, Hibbing John R
Department of Political Science, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Lincoln, NE 68588, USA.
Science. 2008 Sep 19;321(5896):1667-70. doi: 10.1126/science.1157627.
Although political views have been thought to arise largely from individuals' experiences, recent research suggests that they may have a biological basis. We present evidence that variations in political attitudes correlate with physiological traits. In a group of 46 adult participants with strong political beliefs, individuals with measurably lower physical sensitivities to sudden noises and threatening visual images were more likely to support foreign aid, liberal immigration policies, pacifism, and gun control, whereas individuals displaying measurably higher physiological reactions to those same stimuli were more likely to favor defense spending, capital punishment, patriotism, and the Iraq War. Thus, the degree to which individuals are physiologically responsive to threat appears to indicate the degree to which they advocate policies that protect the existing social structure from both external (outgroup) and internal (norm-violator) threats.
尽管人们一直认为政治观点很大程度上源于个人经历，但最近的研究表明它们可能有生物学基础。我们提供的证据表明，政治态度的差异与生理特征相关。在一组46名有强烈政治信仰的成年参与者中，对突然的噪音和具有威胁性的视觉图像身体敏感度明显较低的个体，更有可能支持对外援助、宽松的移民政策、和平主义和枪支管制；而对同样的刺激表现出明显更高生理反应的个体，则更倾向于支持国防开支、死刑、爱国主义和伊拉克战争。因此，个体在生理上对威胁的反应程度，似乎表明了他们倡导保护现有社会结构免受外部（外群体）和内部（违反规范者）威胁的政策的程度。
