Politics and eye movement: Liberals focus their attention on 'gaze cues' much differently than conservatives do
Thursday, December 9, 2010 - 09:30
in Psychology & Sociology
It goes without saying that conservatives and liberals don't see the world in the same way. Now, research suggests that is exactly -- and quite literally -- the case. In a new study, researchers measured both liberals' and conservatives' reaction to "gaze cues" -- a person's tendency to shift attention in a direction consistent with another person's eye movements. Liberals responded strongly to the prompts, consistently moving their attention in the direction suggested to them by a face on a computer screen. Conservatives, on the other hand, did not.