Emotion, Neuroscience and Responses to Survey Questions:

A Neuro Potpourri*

GeorgeBishopandStephenMockabee

(bishopgf@mail.uc.edu)(Stephen.Mockabee@uc.edu)

UniversityofCincinnati*George Bishop is a retired professor of political science and currently a part-time student at the University of Cincinnati; Stephen Mockabee is an Associate Professor of Political Science, University of Cincinnati.

“Ninety-eight percent of whatthe mind does is outsideconscious awareness.”

Michael Gazzaniga The Mind’s Past

Affective-Cognitive Neuroscience: Implications for Understanding the Survey Response

• The rationalistic, enlightenment model of public opinion [Gallup>Newport] is dead!

• We don’t know what we are thinking or whywe are thinking what we are thinking

• We have no introspective access to the affective-cognitive processes underlying our responses to survey questions….So asking

More A-C Neuroscience Implications and Propositions

• Asking Rs “Why?” yields mostly plausible, after-the-fact justifications, confabulations and cognitive by-products of largely unconscious processes

• Affect&Cognitionareneuropsychologicallyinseparable&overlapping

• Affective reactions to attitude survey questions are primary: fast, intuitive, and largely unconscious

• Respondents select response categories that plausibly justify & rationalize [unconscious] affective decisions already made

Where Have All the Feelings Gone?

• Victim of “Cognitive Revolution” [1960s-] & Computer Metaphor for Mind & Brain

• Info-processing model of brain function:Input>Encoding>Retrieval[memory]>Output

• Emotion & Feelings considered essential to any neuropsychological explanation of behavior, including Verbal Responses to Qs

CASM and “Cold Cognition”: Affectless Model of Survey Response

• Comprehension: Interpret literal/semantic and pragmatic meaning of question (s)

• Retrieval: Recall relevant info from memory• Judgment/Estimation: Use info retrieved from

memory to construct judgment or opinion• Mapping: Fit judgment or opinion onto response

categories + editing—e.g. sensitivity [affect]

Neural Mechanisms of Speech Comprehension: Left Hemisphere, Cortical Language Processing

• Identification of Words: Ambiguity &Context

• Retrieval of Meanings from Memory• Combination & Integration of

Meanings/ Syntax • Construct Semantic Judgment about the

Meaning of a Sentence or Question

Tourangeau et al. (2000)

• Theory postulates 13 cognitive processes, but affect/emotion conspicuously absent

• Autobiographical memory, retrieval &estimation are core cognitive processes

• Attitude & Opinion questions based on much the same cognitive processes & strategies as temporal, factual and frequency items

Nature of Attitudes

• Memory Structures: Pre-existing evaluationsand miscellaneous “considerations”

• Belief Sampling Model: retrieval of such “considerations” based primarily on accessibility….purely cognitive process

• Judgment = Averaging, weighting & integration of “considerations”

Utility and Limits of Four-Stage Cognitive Model

• Great heuristic value, but applicable primarily to temporal questions; factual/autobiographical info; and numerical estimation

• Much less applicable to evaluative judgments/ responses to attitude & opinion questions

• Because such questions activate primarily affectivenetworks in the brain, as well as associativecognitive networks

Evidence for Role of Emotion in Responses to Opinion Questions

• Gozzi et al. (2010): Neural correlates of political opinions among respondentsinterested anduninterested inpolitics

• Harris et al.(2009): Neural correlates of beliefs among religious and nonreligiousrespondents

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fMRI: Areas Activated for Contrast Agree>Disagreewith Political Opinion Statements (Gozzi et al. 2010)

• Amygdala Part of limbic system associated with processing and memory of emotions, esp.fear & anxiety; affective intensity in general

• Ventral Putamen Dopamine-rich part of ventral striatum assoc. with processing of feelings of reward

fMRI: Areas Activated for True>False Contrast onReligious-Nonreligious Beliefs

(Harris et al. 2009)

• Anterior Cingulate Cortex Conflict, Error, Negative Emotional Stimuli

• Anterior InsulaNegative affect/appraisal

• Ventral StriatumEmotional processing, esp. reward

fMRI: Areas Activated for True-False Contrast onNonreligious-Religious Beliefs

(Harris et al., 2009)

• Ventromedial Prefrontal Cortex [Left]Self-Representation

• Parahippocampal Gyrus [Left]Memory retrieval

• Hippocampus [Left]Memory Retrieval

• Orbital Frontal Cortex [Left]Cognitive processing of decisions

• Superior Frontal and Middle Temporal Gyri [Left]Speech comprehension

http://www.news.emory.edu/news_images/BrainScan.jpg

fMRIPartisanBrain[ACC &mPFC]Activatedby:Negative InfoaboutCandidate

Caveat: Beware of Neuromania!

• Conservatives have bigger Amygdala (s); liberalslarger, more active ACCs

• “Just Because You’re Imaging the Brain Doesn’t Mean You Can Stop Using Your Head…”

• Beauty of Brain Image Does Not Speak its Psychological Significance

• Social-Psychological vs. Neurobiological levels of analysis…bridging for survey responses?

What Does It All Mean for Asking Survey Questions?

Well…we can’t fMRI everyone• It’s the Validity Thing: Knowing what we are

measuring even if it is measuring something partly or entirely different from what we think we are measuring

• What we’re measuring with many, if not most, public opinion/attitude questions is AFFECT

• Some prominent polling examples:

“Do you approve or disapprove of the way Barack Obama is handling his job as president?”

• “How-do-I-feel about him” heuristic activated automatically…telling R how much he/she likes or dislikes him [Lodge et al.]

• Respondent selects Approve or Disapprove to justify [unconscious] affective decision already made

• If asked why?...R will offer the most accessible, plausible, after-the-fact justification or rationalization—e.g., the economy/Gay marriage

Other Affect-Laden Questions and Affect-Driven Responses

• “Do you approve or disapprove of the way Congress is handling its job?”

• “How much of the time do you think you can trust the government in Washington to do what is right--just about always, most of the time, or only some of the time?

• MoodoftheCountry:“Doyoufeel thingsinthiscountryaregenerallygoingintherightdirectionordoyoufeel thingshaveprettyseriouslygottenoffonthewrongtrack?”

Rival Affect-Driven Model of Responses to Attitude & Opinion Questions

• Rs React Automatically, Affectively & Unconsciously to Attitude & Opinion Qs

• Left-brain “interpreter” constructs plausible, after-the-fact explanations, justifications, and rationalizations>“Why” Questions

• Media Coverage: Provides Plausible, After-the Fact Justifications—e.g. “the Economy”

Take-Aways• Affective-Cognitive Neuroscience is “The

New Frontier” for fully understanding the Question & Answer process

• Most attitude survey questions appear to activate primarily affective neural networks

• Conscious cognitions & responses to survey questions are largely secondary by-products of unconscious, affective decisions already made by respondent…..epiphenomena?