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This article presents a large-scale, empirical evaluation of the psychophysiological correlates of political ideology and, in particular, the claim that conservatives react with higher levels of electrodermal activity to threatening stimuli than liberals. We (1) conduct two large replications of this claim, using locally representative samples of Danes and Americans; (2) reanalyze all published studies and evaluate their reliability and validity; and (3) test several features to enhance the validity of psychophysiological measures and offer a number of recommendations. Overall, we find little empirical support for the claim. This is caused by significant reliability and validity problems related to measuring threat sensitivity using electrodermal activity. When assessed reliably, electrodermal activity in the replications and published studies captures individual differences in the physiological changes associated with attention shifts, which are unrelated to ideology. In contrast to psychophysiological reactions, self-reported emotional reactions to threatening stimuli are reliably associated with ideology.

AbstractThe past decade has seen a rapid increase in the number of studies employing psychophysiological methods to explain variation in political attitudes and behavior. However, the collection, analysis, and interpretation of physiological data present novel challenges for political scientists unfamiliar with the underlying biological concepts and technical skills necessary for utilizing this approach. Our objective in this article is to maximize the effectiveness of future work utilizing psychophysiological measurement by providing guidance on how the techniques can be employed most fruitfully as a complement to, not a replacement for, existing methods. We develop clear, step-by-step instructions for how physiological research should be conducted and provide a discussion of the issues commonly faced by scholars working with these measures. Our hope is that this article will be a useful resource for both neophytes and experienced scholars in lowering the start-up costs to doing this work and assessing it as part of the peer review process. More broadly, in the spirit of the open science framework, we aim to foster increased communication, collaboration, and replication of findings across political science labs utilizing psychophysiological methods.

AbstractWe introduce thePolitics and the Life Sciencesspecial issue on Psychophysiology, Cognition, and Political Differences. This issue represents the second special issue funded by the Association for Politics and the Life Sciences that adheres to the Open Science Framework for registered reports (RR). Here pre-analysis plans (PAPs) are peer-reviewed and given in-principle acceptance (IPA) prior to data being collected and/or analyzed, and are published contingent upon the preregistration of the study being followed as proposed. Bound by a common theme of the importance of incorporating psychophysiological perspectives into the study of politics, broadly defined, the articles in this special issue feature a unique set of research questions and methodologies. In the following, we summarize the findings, discuss the innovations produced by this research, and highlight the importance of open science for the future of political science research.

Purpose of the study is to shed light on the role of psychophysiology in the creative process, namely, the style corrections connected with pathological changes in the artist's organism, deviating from empirical-descriptive methods. Theoretical basis of the study implies the interpretation of the notions style and disease not in their narrow professional limitation but from the standpoint of expanding the parameters of these concepts to philosophical dimensions. Based on the principle of analogy, the research findings prove that non-mimetic creative process ("pure" action) manifests itself exclusively in connection with a human from a bodily viewpoint through anthropological mimesis, which can program the propensity to certain capabilities of the individual organism (both psycho-physiological and in its creative and stylistic manifestations). C. G. Jung was the first who pointed to the productivity of this method in his work "Theoretical Reflections on the Nature of the Psyche". The creativity phenomenon (and its most specific feature – style) reflects not only "pure" psychology and the intellectual and spiritual component but also its relation to the artist as a physical being. It, outside its belonging to and being conditioned by transcendent factors, includes a quantitative aspect related to the moment of intensity. The disease (quantitative-intensive indicator) acts to some extent as a stimulator of the production/change of aesthetic enzyme ("The Obsessed" by Lesia Ukrainka). In this context, the dialectic method is also effective because the subject of study cannot be comprehensively argued using naturalistic approaches only and requires (according to A. Losev) a semantic explanation too. The essence of it is the logic of contradictions. In this case, the antinomy of matter-spirit plays a conceptual role in the projection on the plane of word-formation. Originality of the research findings is in the expansion of the causal relationship range of the creative process, namely the inclusion of the factor of psycho-physiological pathology into the system artist-work. This factor performs important stylistic functions. Conclusions. In contrast to scientific studies, where 1) style is analyzed separately (mostly in terms of text landscape description) and 2) the figure of the artist (mainly – in the parameters of empiricism, rarely – in psychoanalytic perspective), this study argues the need to correlate these issues, taking them beyond descriptiveness to avoid schematics and one-dimensionality.

Most Americans are sorted into social networks that are largely politically homogeneous. A large body of political science research has explored the behavioral implications of being embedded in a politically homogeneous or heterogeneous network, but substantially less attention has been given to explaining why some people find themselves in politically homogeneous or heterogeneous social networks. In this article, we explore the psychological and physiological underpinnings of political network homogeneity. We use social network data from an original survey of 129 undergraduates paired with lab experimental evidence that measures individuals' physiological reactivity to an anticipated political discussion. Using our original survey and a separate nationally representative survey, we find suggestive evidence that individuals who are more socially anxious are more likely to share partisanship with their social network ties. Moreover, we find that individuals who experienced a greater increase in heart rate when anticipating a political discussion were more likely to be in homogeneous discussion networks, but we do not find a relationship between electrodermal activity and network homogeneity. Aversion to psychological and physiological discomfort induced by political discussions could contribute to social polarization in the American public.

This paper explores the subjective psychophysiological research of the so-called subjective audition conducted by the Czech physician and endocrinologist Stanislav Vomela in the 1930s. It examines Vomela's attempts to analyze his own peculiar experience of hearing what he called subjective music (music heard only by the subject) and introduces the concept of acousmatics Vomela developed to study this kind of auditory perception. Vomela's methodology is studied against the background of J. E. Purkyně's understanding of the subjective empiricist methodology of self-knowing in the physiology of the senses and in the context of research into eidetic imagery by E. R. Jaensch and Victor Urbantschitsch.

Includes bibliographical references. ; Number of sources in the bibliography: 251 ; Thesis (Ph. D.) -- University of Cyprus, Faculty of Social Sciences and Education, Department of Psychology, 2019. ; The University of Cyprus Library holds the printed form of the thesis. ; Σε έναν κόσμο που γίνεται ολοένα και πιο ποικιλόμορφος και παγκοσμιοποιημένος, οι ταχείες κοινωνικές και πολιτικές μεταμορφώσεις οδηγούν στην ανάγκη καλύτερης κατανόησης της αλληλεπίδρασης μεταξύ ομάδων ανθρώπων. Ορισμένες μορφές διομαδικών συσχετίσεων, όπως η διομαδική αρνητική προκατάληψη και οι μεροληψίες, παρουσιάζουν ιδιαίτερο ενδιαφέρον, καθώς ενδέχεται να οδηγήσουν σε βίαιες συγκρούσεις και διαχωρισμό με βάση την ιδιότητα μέλους εθνικής ομάδας. Στο πλαίσιο αυτής της μελέτης η συναισθηματική διάσταση της προκατάληψης εξετάζεται μέσω πολλαπλών δεικτών. Συγκεκριμένα, μετρήσαμε την ενεργοποίηση του αυτόνομου νευρικού συστήματος (ενδεικτικό του συναισθήματος προτού επέλθει στη συνείδηση) μετά την δημιουργία συνθηκών ταύτισης με την ένδο-ομάδα με την έκθεση των ελληνοκύπριων συμμετεχόντων σε υποτιθέμενους Τουρκοκύπριους απεικονισμένοι σε οθόνη σε μορφή φωτογραφιών, και υποτιθέμενους Ισπανούς (ομάδα ελέγχου) επίσης απεικονισμένοι με τον ίδιο τρόπο. Μέσα από αυτή τη μελέτη εξετάσαμε πώς η προ-συνειδητή προκατάληψη, υπό τη μορφή διομαδικού άγχους, ξεδιπλώνεται σε ένα απλό πειραματικό μοντέλο προβολής εικόνων, το οποίο είναι ένας τύπος επαφής παρόμοιας με την έκθεση, λαμβάνοντας παράλληλα υπόψη τους σχετικούς με την Κύπρο παράγοντες που σχετίζονται με το συγκεκριμένο πλαίσιο. Επιπρόσθετα, εξετάσαμε κατά πόσον η επαφή μεταξύ των δύο κύριων εθνικών ομάδων στην Κύπρο, οι οποίες διαχωρίστηκαν ιστορικά και πολιτικά κατά μήκος των φυσικών γραμμών, επηρέασε το διομαδικό άγχος στις διάφορες πειραματικές συνθήκες. Τέλος, εξετάσαμε μια σειρά άλλων εμπειρικά προερχόμενων ατομικών μεταβλητών σε σχέση με την διομαδική προκατάληψη, όπως η προσωπικότητα και οι πολιτικές πεποιθήσεις, και κατά πόσο το διομαδικό άγχος μεσολαβεί στην επίδρασή τους στην διομαδική επαφή και στις αρνητικές στάσεις απέναντι στην εξω-ομάδα. Τα ευρήματα μας υποδεικνύουν ότι υπήρχαν διαφορές στην αυτόνομη ανταπόκριση μεταξύ πειραματικών συνθηκών με βάση την επαγωγή που έλαβαν, με την ομάδα που πίστευε ότι είδε εικόνες Τουρκοκύπριων να επιδεικνύουν την υψηλότερη αμυντική αυτόνομη αντιδραστικότητα. Η επαφή μεταξύ ομάδων εξάλειψε τις διαφορές στην μεταξύ συνθηκών στην μέτρηση της αγωγιμότητα του δέρματος αλλά όχι στην μέτρηση του αιφνιδιασμού. Τέλος, το αυτό-αναφερόμενο διομαδικό άγχος δεν είχε επίδραση διαμεσολάβησης μεταξύ των μεταβλητών που εξετάστηκαν, αλλά ήταν επιτυχής μόνο στην πλήρη μεσολάβηση της επίδρασης της συμπονετικής ανησυχίας στις αρνητικές στάσεις απέναντί στην εξω-ομάδα Τα αποτελέσματα των αναλύσεων μας για το φύλο δείχνουν ότι το φύλο των ερεθισμάτων (εικόνες) διαδραμάτισε σημαντικό ρόλο στην αλλαγή των αντιδράσεων, ενώ το φύλο των συμμετεχόντων δεν είχε αξιοσημείωτο αντίκτυπο. ; In a world that is quickly becoming increasingly diverse and global, rapid social and political transformations mean that a better understanding of interaction between identified groups of people (intergroup relations) becomes crucial. Certain types of intergroup relations, such as intergroup bias and prejudice, are of particular interest, as they may lead to violent conflict and segregation. Within the context of this study the affective dimension of prejudice is examined through multiple indices. Particularly we measured activation of the autonomous nervous system (indicative of preconscious emotion) after eliciting maximal social identity saliency by exposing Greek Cypriot participants (ingroup) to contact with supposed Turkish Cypriots (outgroup) and supposed Spaniards (control group) in a picture viewing paradigm. Through this study we examined how preconscious prejudice in the form of intergroup anxiety unfolds in a simple experimental picture viewing paradigm, which is a type of contact akin to exposure, while keeping in mind contextual factors that are relevant to Cyprus (i.e. no physical cues of difference between ingroup and outgroup faces) and relevant in general (i.e. gender). In addition, we examined whether intergroup contact between the two major ethnic groups in Cyprus, who have been historically and politically segregated along physical lines, altered group differences in intergroup anxiety. Finally, we examined a host of other empirically derived individual difference variables in relation to prejudice, such as personality and political attitudes, and the capacity of self-reported intergroup anxiety to mediate their effect on intergroup contact and negative outgroup attitudes. Our results indicate that there were differences in autonomous responding between groups based on the induction they received, with the group who believe they were witnessing pictures of Turkish Cypriots eliciting the highest defensive reactivity in the form of skin conductance and startle potentiation. Intergroup contact eliminated differences in group responding on skin conductance but not startle reactivity. And finally, self-reported intergroup anxiety did not have a cross-cutting mediation effect between the variables examined, rather, it was only successful in fully mediating the effect of empathic concern on negative outgroup attitudes. The results of our analyses on gender indicate that the sex of stimulus played a large role in altering responses, whereas gender of participants did not have a noteworthy impact.