Abstract

Although studies have shown that implicit social cues, such as images of watchful eyes, can elicit prosocial behavior, little research to date has examined individual differences in people’s susceptibility to such subtle social cues. For example, individuals with a conservative ideology typically value social conformity, obedience, and adherence to social norms more than liberals. To examine partisan heterogeneity, we analyze data from two large randomized field experiments on voting behavior. Results suggest that the impact of eyespots on voter mobilization is indeed likely driven by political identity, with a significant effect for Republicans but not Independents or Democrats. These findings are consistent with an emerging line of research revealing individual differences in how susceptible humans are to implicit social cues.

摘要

尽管研究表明，内隐的社会暗示（例如，注视的眼睛的图像）会引起亲社会行为，但迄今为止，很少有研究检查人们对这种微妙的社会暗示的敏感性的个体差异。例如，具有保守意识形态的个人通常比自由主义者更重视社会整合，服从和遵守社会规范。为了检查党派异质性，我们分析了来自两个关于投票行为的大型随机现场实验的数据。结果表明，眼点对动员选民的影响确实很可能是由政治认同驱动的，这对共和党人有重大影响，但对独立党或民主党人却没有。这些发现与新兴的研究线相一致，该研究线揭示了人类对内在社交线索的敏感程度的个体差异。