Homan Maaike D, Hamdan Mohammad, Hendriks Karlijn, Petropoulos Petalas Diamantis
Department of Political Science, University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
Faculty of Social and Behavioural Sciences, Utrecht University, Utrecht, The Netherlands.
Sci Rep. 2025 Mar 11;15(1):8431. doi: 10.1038/s41598-025-92898-6.
The high levels of polarization raise concerns about individuals' decreased ability to empathize and understand the representatives of political out-groups. As such, our political biases may lead us to misunderstand out-group politicians. In the current study, we examine the mu rhythm, a neural oscillation in the sensorimotor cortex related to the processing and understanding of other people's actions, intentions and emotions. The mu rhythm is particularly responsive towards the emotional expressions of others and sensitive to social biases. Hence, we examine (1) whether the emotions displayed by politicians lead to more mu event-related-desynchronization (mu-ERD), (2) whether it matters which emotion (angry, happy, neutral) is displayed, and (3) whether neural responses differ when emotions are displayed by politicians we support (in-party politician) compared to politicians we do not support (out-party politician). To test this, we recorded electroencephalogram (EEG) responses during a preregistered Go/No Go mimicry experiment (N = 47, Obs = 1104), in which participants are presented with dynamic morphed emotional displays of Dutch politicians (in- and out-party) and non-politicians. We find that politicians emotional displays increase participants' mu-ERD compared to static neutral displays. Most mu-ERD is found for out-party politicians, especially when angry. In addition, we explored alpha oscillations (related to visual attention), where we find the strongest alpha-ERD for the out-party happy condition. Overall our results suggest that our brain is specifically attuned to process the emotions of out-party politicians.
高度的两极分化引发了人们对个体共情能力下降以及理解政治外群体代表能力下降的担忧。因此，我们的政治偏见可能会导致我们误解外群体的政治家。在当前的研究中，我们研究了μ节律，这是一种感觉运动皮层中的神经振荡，与对他人的行为、意图和情绪的处理和理解有关。μ节律对他人的情感表达特别敏感，并且对社会偏见也很敏感。因此，我们研究了：（1）政治家所展现的情绪是否会导致更多的μ事件相关去同步化（mu-ERD）；（2）所展现的是哪种情绪（愤怒、高兴、中性）是否重要；（3）当我们支持的政治家（党内政治家）与我们不支持的政治家（党外政治家）展现情绪时，神经反应是否存在差异。为了验证这一点，我们在一个预先注册的“是/否”模仿实验（N = 47，观察次数 = 1104）中记录了脑电图（EEG）反应，在该实验中，向参与者展示了荷兰政治家（党内和党外）以及非政治家的动态变形情感展示。我们发现，与静态中性展示相比，政治家的情感展示会增加参与者的mu-ERD。党外政治家的mu-ERD最为明显，尤其是当他们愤怒的时候。此外，我们还研究了阿尔法振荡（与视觉注意力有关），发现在党外高兴的情况下阿尔法-ERD最为强烈。总体而言，我们的研究结果表明，我们的大脑特别适应于处理党外政治家的情绪。
