Saying BOO! to a Conservative

by David Safier

Ever wonder why fear is such a great motivator for conservatives and why they run to Daddy candidates who make them feel safe? This study may provide a clue.

Conservatives tend to have a more highly developed startle reflex than others.

To measure that sensitivity, researchers conducted two tests. In one, they showed volunteers a series of photos that included some threatening images — for example, a picture of a man with a spider on his face or an infected open wound — while measuring the electrical conductance of the volunteers’ skin, a technique also used in polygraph testing. In a separate experiment, researchers subjected the volunteers to sudden bursts of loud white noise to test their startle reflexes, measured by sensors attached to the muscle below the eye that recorded how hard people blinked.

People who blinked harder than others and registered a heightened response to threat on the conductivity test tended to support the death penalty and military spending. People with a mellower startle response were more likely to support abortion rights and gun control. The study also looked at several broader political tendencies, including compromise (the willingness to yield to a middle-ground solution) and obedience (the tendency to follow a set path), and found that people who were more sensitive to threat were less amenable to the former and more inclined toward the latter.

The most recent incarnation of the McPalin campaign message boils down to, “Be afraid. Be very afraid.” Conservatives have taken that route for more campaign cycles than I care to remember. It seems they know the DNA of their base.

But tell me, haven’t we heard for years that Democrats are mamby-pamby fraidy cats, and Republicans are tough as nails?

BOO! Hah, gotcha!