It is election season in the United States and attention is focused on the upcoming November 3rd presidential contest. Candidate debates, poll results and political discussions dominate the news. Psychologists have been interested in the factors influencing an individual’s political opinions and affiliation for a long time. An interesting recent study took a novel approach. The authors explored cognitive style differences between handedness types and how these related to support for specific US presidential candidates in the 2016 primary elections.¹
There is a research tradition arguing that handedness consistency is a better predictor of individual differences in behavior than handedness side. Consistent handers are people who use one hand, left or right, for all or most one-handed activities. Inconsistent handers are those who use one hand for some activities and the opposite hand for others. Research supports the idea that the trait of cognitive flexibility is related to handedness consistency. Inconsistent handers display cognitive flexibility and a willingness to accept new ideas while consistent handers are resistant to change, especially rapid change.
In this study, the authors surveyed 449 individuals, 240 Democrats and 209 Republicans. Participants completed a 10-item questionnaire about their handedness behaviors. Fifty-two (52%) of the Democrats and 57% of the Republicans were classified as consistent handers. Each participant completed a 7-item measure of political authoritarianism that included statements such as “Our country desperately needs a mighty leader who will do what has to be done to destroy the radical new ways and sinfulness that are ruining us.” Respondents rated each statement on a scale from ‘strongly disagree’ to ‘strongly agree’. Individuals of each political party then rated their support for either the Democratic nominee, Hillary Clinton, or the Republican nominee, Donald Trump, during the 2016 primary election. The response range was ‘strongly disapproved’ to ‘strongly approved’
In the United States, primary elections are held months in advance of the general election where voters in each of the 50 states cast ballots either for or against the eventual nominee of a party. In the 2016 primary elections, the Democrats had two major contenders, Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders, while Donald Trump eventually triumphed over a field of 17 potential nominees. This research was conducted after both the primary and the general elections of 2016 so participants described their recollections of support for each of the eventual party nominees.
There was a relationship between candidate support and handedness for Republicans in the sample. Consistent handers had higher scores on the authoritarianism scale and they showed more support for Donald Trump. As a caveat, scores on the authoritarianism scale were much stronger predictors of Trump support than were the handedness scores. In other words, the consistent handedness/Trump support association was influenced by the strength of an individual’s agreement with authoritarian views. Handedness did not play a role in Democrat candidate support in the 2016 primary election. The major effect for Democrats was a sex difference with women having a more favorable view of Hillary Clinton than men.
The authors proposed studying the link between handedness type, authoritarianism, and preference for a candidate in future studies of Republican voting patterns. There is not a similar relational pattern for Democrats. The intersecting influences of handedness type, party of choice and adherence to authoritarian opinions, or lack thereof, is complex and appears to differ for Republications and Democrats.
¹Prichard, E.C., & Christman, S.D. (in press). Handedness and the 2016 U.S. Primaries: consistent handedness predicts support for Donald Trump among republicans, but gender predicts support of Hillary Clinton among democrats. Laterality: Asymmetries of Brain, Behaviour, and Cognition. https://doi.org/10.1080/1357650X.2020.1810061. (My thanks to the authors for permission to use the pre-print of their article for this blog post.)