Eye-tracking device (University of Nebraska-Lincoln)

John Hibbing and his colleagues are pioneering research on the physiological underpinnings of political ideology… One of Hibbing’s pioneering papers on the physiology of ideology was published in none other than the top-tier journal Science in 2008. It found that political partisans on the left and the right differ significantly in their bodily responses to threatening stimuli…

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In a 2012 study, Hibbing and his colleagues showed as much through the use of eye-tracking devices like the one shown above. Liberals and conservatives were fitted with devices that tracked their gaze, and were shown a series of four-image collages containing pictures that were either “appetitive” (e.g., something happy or positive) or “aversive” (showing something threatening, scary, or disgusting)… Hibbing and his team have even found that preferences on such matters appear to have a genetic basis.

Read more: http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2014/04/inquiring-minds-john-hibbing-physiology-ideology