The politics of attention contextualized: gaze but not arrow cuing of attention is moderated by political temperament

It is known that an averted gaze can trigger shifts of attention in an observer, a phenomenon known as gaze-cuing effect. Recently, Dodd et al. (Atten Percept Psychophys 73:24–29, 2011) have reported a reliable gaze-cuing effect for liberals but not for conservatives. The present study tested whether this result is gaze-specific or extends over nonsocial spatial signals. Conservatives and liberals took part in a spatial-cuing task in which centrally placed gaze and arrow cues, pointing rightward or leftward, were followed by a peripheral onset target requiring a simple detection response. Whereas a reliable cuing effect was present for both gaze and arrow cues in the case of liberals, conservatives showed a reduced cuing response only for gaze cues. These results provide further support for the pattern reported by Dodd et al. (2011) and are consistent with the view that conservatives are less susceptible to the influence of spatial cues provided by other individuals.

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