A new study shows that emotions triggered by political issues produce stronger and more widespread bodily sensations than the same feelings in everyday contexts. Researchers surveyed nearly 1000 participants to map these differences.
Manos Tsakiris of Royal Holloway, University of London led the research. Participants marked body outlines to indicate where they felt anger, disgust and hope both in general and after exposure to political terms such as terrorism and crime. The resulting heat maps revealed clear distinctions for political versions of these emotions.