Physiology, Identity and Behaviour: A Neuropolitical Perspective

Is our identity dictated by the heart or by the head, by sentiment or by self-interest? How does our identity relate to public attitudes and to public behaviour? How can we better understand identity and the role it plays in everyday life?

This project begins from the starting point that identity matters. The recent riots over the flying of the Union flag in Belfast highlight the potency of identity triggers. The role that identity will play in the forthcoming referenda in Scotland and Catalonia is heavily debated. The question of identity is also central to the ongoing debate about UK membership of the European Union.

However, identity is also complex. Identity is not easily captured in standard surveys which ask, for example, how 'Scottish', 'Portuguese', 'Bavarian' or European an individual feels. Indeed we may not always be conscious of what our identities mean to us or of how our various identities affect our behaviour. Identity has an implicit as well as an explicit dimension.

This study explores the relationship between our expressed or stated identities, 'what we say', and our revealed or observed responses to identity triggers, 'what we do'. Hormonal testing and fMRI brain imaging are used to provide new insights into old questions about the nature of identity and its effects on public attitudes and behaviours. The project will develop a transformative neuropolitics approach to the study of identity.

The Public Impact of the Project:

The ESRC Implicit Triggers pilot project (RES-000-22-4348, PI Laura Cram (with Co-Investigators Stratos Patrikios and James Mitchell) upon which this proposal builds, generated considerable user and media interest. Following an approach from the BBC, the implicit triggers team launched a highly successful collaboration with the BBC using the experimental survey methods to be further developed in this project. The BBC experiment demonstrated the differential effect of implicit exposure to the various UK flags on participants' political attitudes. Over 10,500 members of the UK public took part in a survey experiment developed by the researchers and publicised on the BBC website. The subsequent BBC coverage on the Daily Politics and Sunday Politics programmes was widely disseminated by viewers on Youtube, Facebook and Twitter as well as being covered in the traditional print press. A similar degree of public and media interest in the proposed project is anticipated, but on a cross-national scale. The Principal investigator's media contacts have already indicated that the extension of the Implicit Triggers project into the field of cognitive neuroscience will be of likely further media interest.

The Policy Impact of the Project:
The display of national flags and symbols is highly controversial. The recent riots over the flying of the Union flag in Belfast highlight the potency of identity triggers. The role that identity will play in the forthcoming referenda in Scotland and Catalonia is heavily debated. The question of identity is also central to the ongoing debate about UK membership of the European Union. On the EU flag, the Head of the European Parliament's Information Office commented, in response to the results of the Implicit Triggers project: 'You cannot imagine how much time is spent arguing about the EU flag here at Europe House'. The breadth of the policy relevance of this type of research was evidenced by the affiliations of the attendees at the user engagement events held for the Implicit Triggers project. Attendees included representatives from the European Commission, DG Regio, DG Comms and the Citizens' Europe Unit, Eurodesk, the European Movement and the Scottish government. The extended disciplinary and geographic reach of the current project will extend further the range of user bodies to which the research will be of direct policy relevance.

The proposed research on the impact of implicit identity triggers, in different national and multi-national contexts, is also likely to be of specific interest to those involved, for example, in electoral campaigns. Reviewers of the implicit triggers research outputs have noted, for example, that the research has clear implications for those designing 'how to vote cards' given to people on their way to a polling station to cast their vote, or for those responsible for designing campaign posters used in the lead up to elections. The project will moreover help to illuminate the hitherto little explored intersection of identity, emotion and reasoning among, for example, voters and decision makers.

Impact on the Academy:
Part of the remit of Laura Cram's post is to develop the field of Neuropolitical research in the University. This underlines the University's strong commitment to the promotion of transformative social science research in this field. Already an established Professor with a PhD in political science, Cram elected to develop her own skill-set and the Neuropolitics agenda by undertaking additional MSc training in neuroimaging at Edinburgh University. Edinburgh, with its existing strengths in pol sci, human cognitive neuropsych and integrated neuroscience, cognitive science, experimental and behavioural economics and neuroimaging, provides the ideal environment to support Professor Cram in the development and critique of neuropolitics as a growing field and in the training of young researchers in this field.