Overview

• Participants with extreme views showed stronger activation in emotion-related brain regions tied to fear and threat than moderates.
• Extremists also exhibited higher physiological arousal, measured via skin conductance, which appeared to amplify neural responses.
• The most pronounced reactions occurred during moments when Tim Kaine and Mike Pence launched sharp verbal attacks at each other.
• Moderate participants displayed more varied neural patterns, supporting the idea that extremity rather than ideology shapes processing, consistent with the horseshoe theory.
• The findings, published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, come with caveats about the small sample and U.S.-specific stimulus, and the authors urge replication in broader contexts.