The embodied roots of ideology: Interoceptive sensibility moderates the link between disgust sensitivity and political orientation

Abstract

Past research has linked stronger physiological threat and disgust responses with conservatism, suggesting a neurobiological basis for ideology. However, replication failures cast doubt on a direct link between physiology and political attitudes. Given interoception’s role in awareness and emotion regulation, we tested whether interoceptive sensibility (i.e., awareness of internal bodily states) moderates the relationship between disgust sensitivity and political orientation. In 632 US citizens, we found that the association between disgust sensitivity and political orientation was moderated by interoceptive sensibility. Among those with lower interoception, higher disgust sensitivity was associated with more conservative ideology and a greater likelihood of Republican identification, whereas this association weakened or disappeared among those with higher interoception. We suggest that among individuals with lower interoception, socially acquired meanings may play a larger role in interpreting disgust-related experiences, strengthening their association with ideology. These findings lay the groundwork for mechanistic, replicable research on psychophysiological antecedents of political cognition.