Dr. Eowyn posted: "Political ideology and party identification are not
just about political beliefs and values, they speak to nothing less than a
person's world view. It stands to reason, therefore, conservatives and
liberals must differ in many ways, including biologica" Respond to this
post by replying above this line
New post on *Fellowship of the Minds*
<http://fellowshipoftheminds.com/author/eowyn2/> Conservatives and
liberals smell different
<http://fellowshipoftheminds.com/2014/10/08/conservatives-and-liberals-smell-different/>
by
Dr. Eowyn <http://fellowshipoftheminds.com/author/eowyn2/>
Political ideology and party identification are not just about political
beliefs and values, they speak to nothing less than a person's world view.
It stands to reason, therefore, conservatives and liberals must differ in
many ways, including biological, *homo sapiens* being biological animals.
As an example, studies have found that people are more attracted to the
smell of those whose immune systems are compatible
<http://www.livescience.com/26494-immune-perfume-broadcasts-unique-smell.html>
with their own.
Research has found that political attitudes, rooted as they are in
personality and basic beliefs, also have a biological component.
Conservatives, for example, have stronger disgust reactions
<http://www.livescience.com/16746-conservatives-disgust-political-views.html>
than liberals, and some early brain-scan data
<http://www.livescience.com/47935-people-can-smell-political-ideology.html?cmpid=558288#>
hints that the two groups process risk and fear differently
<http://www.livescience.com/27213-brain-scans-predict-political-party.html>.
The latest discovery: Conservatives and liberals actually smell different!
A recent experiment found that *conservatives like the smell of other
conservatives, while liberals find the smell of conservatives repugnant.*
[image: shock]
<https://fellowshipofminds.files.wordpress.com/2014/10/shock.jpg>
Stephanie Pappas reports for Live Science
<http://www.livescience.com/47935-people-can-smell-political-ideology.html?cmpid=558288>,
Sept. 22, 2014, that a new study finds that people prefer the scents of
those who share their political attitudes. This small, subconscious
preference could explain why people gravitate toward mates whose politics
mesh with theirs
<http://www.livescience.com/17534-life-extremes-democrat-republican.html> —
perhaps compatibility has a smell.
The study's researcher, *Pennsylvania State University political scientist
Pete Hatemi*, says, "There is something about someone who is politically
similar to you that is being put out there and you're receiving that, and
that might just slightly change your position. It might make you a little
more interested. It might make you just interested enough to stick around."
Hatemi and his colleagues knew that a great deal
<http://www.livescience.com/47935-people-can-smell-political-ideology.html?cmpid=558288#>
of research has shown that *spouses tend to match each other's political
views more so than any other trait beside religion. A longer relationship
does not lead to greater convergence in views, suggesting this matching
occurs because people pick someone politically similar to them in the first
place.* But Hatemi and his colleagues have found that people tend to avoid
trumpeting their politics when angling for dates, suggesting political
attitudes don't contribute much to first impressions.
To see if smell might also offer clues about a person's basic attitudes,
Hatemi's team recruited 146 volunteers, ages 18 to 40, from a university
and the surrounding city, and asked them about their political beliefs.
*The researchers asked 21 of these volunteers, all of whom identified as
strongly liberal or strongly conservative, to wear gauze pads taped under
their armpits for 24 hours straight. *To prevent odorous contamination, the
participants couldn't shower, wear perfumes or deodorant, or even sleep in
the same bed with another person during this period, among other rules.
Next, 125 other volunteers were asked to take a whiff
<http://www.livescience.com/39794-humans-smell-ten-odor-types.html> of
these pads, without knowing from whom they came. In other words, the
sniffers don't know whether the pads came from a conservative or a liberal.
The volunteers are then asked to:
- Rate the appeal of the smells of the pads on a five-point scale; and
- Guess the ideology of the person whose sweat it was.
The results:
- Conservatives liked the smell of conservatives, and were neutral about
the smell of liberals.
- Liberals were neutral about the smell of other liberals, but didn't
like the smell of conservatives.
The researchers had controlled for demographic factors. Statistically
speaking, the findings were less than 10% likely to be by chance alone.
Hatemi cautioned that the findings should not be taken as an argument that
culture and society don't shape politics or love
<http://www.livescience.com/46934-eye-tracking-glances-reveal-love-lust.html>,
but rather that subtle, innate influences might play a small role.
Another of the study's researcher, *Brown University professor of
international relations Rose McDermott*, said there could be good reason
for romantic chemistry to take ideology into account
<http://www.livescience.com/47935-people-can-smell-political-ideology.html?cmpid=558288#>
: "I suspect that, ultimately, it relates to the fact that people who align
politically are more likely to stay together long enough to raise their
kids successfully to reproductive age, on average, and to garner the social
support necessary to do so, because people like to be around them more on
average because they are not fighting all the time."
The researchers reported their findings online Sept. 2 in the *American
Journal of Political Science*.
Even if the smell preference holds, it's unclear how much it matters in
real-life dating and mating choices, because a spritz of cologne or a
shower could erase the whole odor.
So my advice is:
Before you commit yourself, make sure you *really* know your girl- or
boy-friend. Get a good whiff of their body without perfume or cologne. LOL
*~Eowyn*
*Dr. Eowyn <http://fellowshipoftheminds.com/author/eowyn2/>* | October 8,
2014 at 5:53 am | Tags: American Journal of Political Science
<http://fellowshipoftheminds.com/?tag=american-journal-of-political-science>,
biological roots of political ideology
<http://fellowshipoftheminds.com/?tag=biological-roots-of-political-ideology>,
conservatives like the smell of other conservatives
<http://fellowshipoftheminds.com/?tag=conservatives-like-the-smell-of-other-conservatives>,
differences between conservatives and liberals
<http://fellowshipoftheminds.com/?tag=differences-between-conservatives-and-liberals>,
liberals dislike the smell of conservatives
<http://fellowshipoftheminds.com/?tag=liberals-dislike-the-smell-of-conservatives>,
marital compatibility
<http://fellowshipoftheminds.com/?tag=marital-compatibility>, Pete Hatemi
<http://fellowshipoftheminds.com/?tag=pete-hatemi>, Rose McDermott
<http://fellowshipoftheminds.com/?tag=rose-mcdermott> | Categories:
Conservatives <http://fellowshipoftheminds.com/?cat=35268289>,
Liberals/Democrats/Left
<http://fellowshipoftheminds.com/?cat=115894710>, Science
& technology <http://fellowshipoftheminds.com/?cat=1749> | URL:
http://wp.me/pKuKY-rV5
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