School of Psychology, Flinders University, Adelaide, South Australia, Australia.
PLoS One. 2012;7(5):e36552. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0036552. Epub 2012 May 2.
Physiological research suggests that social attitudes, such as political beliefs, may be partly hard-wired in the brain. Conservatives have heightened sensitivity for detecting emotional faces and use emotion more effectively when campaigning. As the left face displays emotion more prominently, we examined 1538 official photographs of conservative and liberal politicians from Australia, Canada, the United Kingdom and the United States for an asymmetry in posing. Across nations, conservatives were more likely than liberals to display the left cheek. In contrast, liberals were more likely to face forward than were conservatives. Emotion is important in political campaigning and as portraits influence voting decisions, conservative politicians may intuitively display the left face to convey emotion to voters.
生理学研究表明，社会态度，如政治信仰，可能在大脑中部分是固定的。保守派在探测情感面孔时具有更高的敏感性，并且在竞选时更有效地利用情感。由于左派面孔更明显地表现出情感，我们研究了来自澳大利亚、加拿大、英国和美国的 1538 名保守派和自由派政治家的 1538 张官方照片，以研究姿势的不对称性。在这些国家中，保守派比自由派更有可能展示左脸颊。相比之下，自由派比保守派更倾向于面向前方。情感在政治竞选中很重要，因为肖像会影响投票决定，所以保守派政治家可能会直觉地展示左脸，以向选民传达情感。
