CB3: Kevin Smith

University Communications Author

11/20/2015 Added

205 Plays

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Kevin Smith is a professor political science and department chair. He works in the Center for Brain, Biology and Behavior (CB3) at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. http://cb3.unl.edu/

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[00:00:00.251](soft curious music)
[00:00:02.242]The primary goal of our research is to discover
[00:00:06.208]and understand the biological and deep psychological
[00:00:09.171]bases of political attitudes and behaviors.
[00:00:12.075]I think it's a terrifically important area of research
[00:00:14.614]because ideological differences,
[00:00:17.415]differences on politics are at the root
[00:00:19.518]of most social conflict.
[00:00:21.654]Psychologists and endocrinologists have known
[00:00:23.830]for years, and years, and years,
[00:00:25.194]that people with fairly high levels of baseline cortisol
[00:00:30.458]tend to avoid social conflict.
[00:00:33.001]In layman's terms, that's the stress hormone
[00:00:35.740]and our Oparin hypothesis was politics
[00:00:39.154]by definition, is social conflict.
[00:00:41.687]So people with high baseline levels of cortisol,
[00:00:45.124]we expected to avoid politics.
[00:00:48.213]And sure enough, we got a very, very strong correlation.
[00:00:52.191]People with high levels of cortisol tend
[00:00:54.304]to have lower levels of political participation.
[00:00:57.632]They're less likely to go to the polls, for example.
[00:01:00.818]This is a fantastic facility
[00:01:02.591]to be doing this type of research.
[00:01:04.093]It's not just our lab working in isolation.
[00:01:06.855]Several of the labs in this building, we have worked with.
[00:01:10.792]Having these labs right next to each other
[00:01:13.571]really sort of creates a synergy that is,
[00:01:16.906]I'm not sure that it's replicated anywhere else.
[00:01:19.319](soft curious music)

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CB3: Kevin Smith

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