The Molecule of More

THE MOLECULE OF MORE

to  messages that  offer benefits, like  opportunities for  more resources, 
whereas H&N conservatives are more likely to respond to messages that
offer security, like  the  ability to  keep the  things they currently have. 
Liberals support programs they believe will lead to a better future, such
as  subsidized education, urban planning, and  government-funded tech-
nology initiatives. Conservatives prefer programs that protect their cur-
rent way of life, such as defense spending, law-and-order initiatives, and
limits on immigration.
Liberals and conservatives both have their reasons for focusing on
threats versus benefits, reasons they believe are  rational conclusions 
resulting from thoughtful weighing of evidence. That’s probably not
true. It’s  more likely that  there is  a  fundamental difference in  the  way 
their brains are wired.
Researchers at the University of Nebraska selected a group of
volunteers based on their political beliefs and measured their level
of arousal as they were shown pictures that evoked desire or distress.
Arousal is sometimes used to describe sexual excitement, but more
broadly it’s a measure of how engaged a person is with what’s going
on around him. When a person is interested and engaged, his heart
beats a little faster, his blood pressure goes up a bit, and small amounts
of perspiration are released from his sweat glands. Doctors call this a
sympathetic response. The most common way to measure the sympa-
thetic response is to attach electrodes to a person’s body, and measure
how easily electricity flows. Sweat is  salt water, which conducts elec-
tricity better than dry skin. The more aroused a person is, the easier
the  electricity flows.
After the electrodes were attached to the research participants, they
were shown three distressing photos (a spider on a man’s face, an open
wound with maggots, and  a  crowd fighting with a  man) and  three pos-
itive photos (a happy child, a bowl of fruit, and a cute rabbit). Lib-
erals had a stronger response to the positive photos, conservatives to
the negative ones. Because the researchers were measuring a biological
reaction—perspiration—the response couldn’t have been intention-
ally controlled by the participants. Something more fundamental than
rational choice was being measured.