[iDC] The Politics of Perception
Anna Munster
A.Munster at unsw.edu.au
Sun Sep 21 02:45:54 UTC 2008
additionally I think there's much to be gained from paying close
attention to the these kind of micro-sensate movements that constitute
perception and which are opened up for investigation by such
experiments as they may help us think through contemporary
politics...how are micro-sensations both produced and captured at the
same time, for example?, which I think is what is going on in these
kind of experiments where we have a kind of production-modulation of
affect 1)via the image and 2) by a preemptive capture of affective
context by a merger of political content and 'scientific' method
discourse (note: the 'subjects' were prepared affectively for the
process of being 'measured' by being allowed to air their views on
'hot' topics and then were shown both frightening and repulsive images).
I think there's much less a question of biological determinism going
on here than a very active production of both an over- determined
affective/discursive field and an indeterminate field of affect
waiting to be released.. And that's just what's going on in a
psychological experiment! these kinds of relays (or what Deleuze and
Guattari called refrains) are occurring every second in contemporary
politics and economics and such experiments can tell us much about the
biopolitics at work everywhere today....sometimes so-called empirical
and clinical psychology can be startlingly revealing and provide us
with more means for contemporary analysis than some of the social
theory we have held so dear for the last 50 years.
cheers
Anna
On 20/09/2008, at 7:12 PM, tiziana wrote:
> very interesting paul, it is not the first experiment I have heard of
> experiments on the physiology of political affiliations, there have
> been
> quite a few lately...
>
> the point is though what do you do with such research? Do you look for
> the 'real' causes (as Lucia suggests) in history, power etc? Yes, I
> think that is satisfying somehow intellectually, but if you want to
> work
> schizoanalytically so to speak on this kind of skin-deep reactions
> (which is what somehow right wingers have been doing with their
> powerful
> means of mass communications) then it would be interesting to think of
> what kind of experimentations, of what devices one could invent to
> startle and unsettle the fearful minds using other strategies and
> modes
> of communications...
>
> tiziana
>
> Lucia Sommer wrote:
>
>> Thanks, Paul.
>>
>> Amusing indeed! The article should be perhaps be titled "The Politics
>> of Hard-Core Biological Determinism." The real question is WHY are
>> some people so afraid?
>>
>> I'd reckon it has more to do with historical and political factors
>> than "physiology", "reflexes" or "genetics": the Politics of Fear,
>> the rise of neoliberalism, the historical destruction of the left and
>> of independent journalism, the absence of perceived political
>> alternatives...
>>
>> Best,
>>
>> Lucia
>>
>> --- On *Fri, 9/19/08, Paul Miller /<anansi5000 at gmail.com>/* wrote:
>> From: Paul Miller <anansi5000 at gmail.com>
>> Subject: [iDC] The Politics of Perception
>> To: "idc-mailman.thing.net <http://idc-mailman.thing.net>"
>> <idc at mailman.thing.net>
>> Date: Friday, September 19, 2008, 10:15 AM
>>
>> an amusing scenario:
>> http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7623256.stm
>> Paul
>>
>>
>> Political views 'all in the mind'
>> By Matt McGrath
>> Science reporter, BBC World Service
>>
>> Voters' mind are made up long before they arrive at the ballot box
>>
>> Scientists studying voters in the US say our political views may be
>> an
>> integral part of our physical makeup.
>> Their research, published in the journal Science, indicates that
>> people who are sensitive to fear or threat are likely to support a
>> right wing agenda. Those who
>> perceived less
>> danger in a series of
>> images and sounds were more inclined to support liberal policies. The
>> authors believe their findings may help to explain why voters' minds
>> are so hard to change.
>>
>> In the study, conducted in Nebraska, 46 volunteers were first asked
>> about their political views on issues ranging from foreign aid and
>> the
>>
>> Iraq war to capital punishment and patriotism. Those with strong
>> opinions were invited to take part in the second part of the
>> experiment, which involved recording their physiological responses to
>> a series of images and sounds. The images included pictures of a
>> frightened man with a large spider on his face and an open wound with
>> maggots in it. The subjects were also startled with loud noises on
>> occasion.
>>
>> Conducting experiments
>>
>> By measuring the electrical conductance of the volunteers' skin and
>> their blink responses, the scientists were able to work out the
>> degree
>> of fear they were experiencing - how sensitive they were to the
>> images
>> and sounds.
>>
>> "Instead of political opponents thinking the opposite party are being
>> wilfully bull-headed, you can say 'well ok, they see the world
>> differently than I do'"
>> John Hibbing.
>>
>> They found that subjects who were more easily
>> startled tended to have
>> political views that would be classified as more right wing, being
>> more in favour of capital punishment and
>>
>> higher defence spending, but
>> opposed to abortion rights.
>>
>> The scientists explained that these political positions were
>> protective of the volunteers' social groups.
>>
>> "We focused primarily on things that we call 'protecting the social
>> unit'," said John Hibbing from the University of Nebraska. "So
>> the
>> idea is we have this unit - maybe it's the US - and we want to
>> protect
>> this from outsiders; so we might be opposed to immigration, we might
>> advocate patriotism, and we like leaders who are strong and clear who
>> are able to protect us from those outsiders. "We might even be
>> opposed
>> to pornography or any kind of corrosive element that we see
>> threatening the social unit. "On the other hand, you have people who
>> are more supportive of pacifism and who advocate
>> gun control - and
>> there are lots of areas where people who are less sensitive
>> to
>> threat
>> would project those kinds of feelings into the political arena."
>>
>> Different strokes
>>
>> The researchers say there is no political relevance to their research
>> - but Dr Hibbing feels it may help explain why it is so hard to
>> change
>> someone's mind in a political debate. Different people, he said,
>> started from a different psychological point. "You have people who
>> are
>> experiencing the world, who are experiencing threat, differently.
>>
>> "It's just that we have these very different physiological
>> orientations. We're not sure where they came from, they may be
>> genetic, they may be something from childhood; we do know, though,
>> that they run deep because it's a reflex, it's not something you can
>> change tomorrow, the depth of that may be something of an asset in
>> figuring out why people are so stubborn in their
>> political beliefs,"
>> he said. "I even have the hope that this might
>> facilitate
>>
>> understanding a little bit. Instead of political opponents thinking
>> the opposite party are being wilfully bull-headed, you can say 'well
>> ok, they see the world differently than I do'. "People haven't
>> just
>> thought about things differently, they feel things differently."
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>
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>
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Dr.Anna Munster
Senior Lecturer
School of Art History and Theory
College of Fine Arts
UNSW
P.O. Box 259
Paddington
NSW 2021
612 9385 0741 (tel)
612 9385 0615(fax)
a.munster at unsw.edu.au
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