Tag: Biology

The Story: A fungus has been spreading rapidly among a certain invasive species of ants in the southeastern states of The United States. Scientists say...

The Story: Edward O. Wilson, one of the most important biologists of the late 20th and early 21st centuries, died last week at age 92....

 The Story: The world is witnessing a revolution in the bio-medical sciences. The cost to design and produce bioengineered cells has fallen, and the lowered...

John Hibbing’s political research is bipartisan in that it aggravates both sides of the aisle. “Our research is not really very popular,” Hibbing said. Hibbing is branching off from their research about conservatives and liberals and is preparing to collect data about President Trump’s supporters in order to study how they differ from other conservatives. “There are these nationalist, nativist concept leaders everywhere,” Hibbing said. “So, I thought having access to Trump supporters and really digging in deep to figure out what’s going on with them would help us understand these kinds of populist, nativist movements.” A company will send out Hibbing’s survey at the beginning of February, and he said he will analyze the data to better understand Trump supporters. “I think a lot of their policy attitudes are not necessarily driven by ‘Oh my God, the Mongol hordes are coming to get us,’” Hibbing said. The data collected about a participant’s physical symptoms could have many different meanings, so Hibbing is careful not to make generalizations about conservatives or liberals as a whole. Both Hibbing and Smith understand their research will not change the polarized political environment, but Smith said he thought it would help people understand that other people’s political beliefs were based on biology and not the “wrong” opinion. “Maybe I’m not 100 percent correct. People thought I was crazy for turning down other, maybe higher-ranked, universities, but I’d do it again in a heartbeat.” Smith said the team will continue to conduct research on the physiological differences between conservatives and liberals.