Introduction
Despite the significance of political awareness and its measurement among students as one of the most important social groups, unfortunately, most existing studies have not provided a detailed and comprehensive explanation of the subject. In particular, they have rarely employed the approach of political neuroscience to analyze and explain this issue. Accordingly, the present research aimed to investigate and measure political awareness, as well as the degree to which political knowledge indicators have become institutionalized among students. Focused on students at Tehran universities, the research comparatively examined and measured the level of political awareness among students in technical fields and those in the humanities. The main question is, what are the differences and similarities between technical students and humanities students of Tehran universities in terms of political awareness? The study is based on the hypothesis that the level of political awareness among technical students differs from that of humanities students, due to their distinct psychological and cognitive characteristics.
Literature Review
Despite the quantitative growth in the student population and the significance of political awareness and its measurement among students as one of the most important social groups, most studies in Iran have examined political awareness in relation to issues such as political legitimacy (Massoudnia et al., 2009), political participation (Sakhamehr & Sedaghatifard, 2015; Seyyedemami, 2007; Shahriari, 2014a), and international issues (Bagheri-Dolatabadi, 2016).
Others have focused on the impact of factors such as social networks on political awareness (Kabiri et al., 2019) or on political orientation (Shahriari, 2014b), typically adopting sociological or psychological approaches. Even outside Iran, research on political awareness has largely followed this framework (Bolsen, 2009; Lesson, 2018), and to date, the political neuroscience approach has not been applied to analyze and explain the issue. A review of the aforementioned studies shows that the dominant approaches (i.e., sociology and political psychology) primarily examine the social or psychological contexts shaping political awareness.
By contrast, the political neuroscience approach, which represents the distinctive and innovative contribution of this article, investigates political awareness from the perspective of cognitive science and the brain’s neural structures—an approach that has not yet been applied in Iran to the study of political awareness among students.
Materials and Methods
The statistical population of this study consisted of all students in technical and humanities fields at Tehran universities. A questionnaire was distributed publicly online, and 256 students from technical-engineering, basic sciences, medical sciences, and humanities disciplines responded. According to the results of the G*Power software (with a medium effect size of 0.5, an alpha level of 0.05, and statistical power of 0.8), a sample of 120–130 participants was required. Accordingly, the responses of 124 students (57 from technical fields and 67 from the humanities) were included in the final analysis. Following the study procedure, participants first completed the questionnaire. To control for fatigue effects, the order of the scales was randomized.
The data from the two groups (technical and humanities students) were then separated for analysis, which was conducted through SPSS software. An independent statistical t-test was employed to compare the mean scores of the two groups, while the Pearson correlation test was used to examine the relationships between the research variables.
Results and Discussion
The independent t-test was conducted on two groups across five variables: the economic axis of the political compass (left–right), the social axis of the political compass (authoritarian–libertarian), the idealism subscale of the standard moral ideology classification questionnaire, the relativity subscale of the same questionnaire, and the beneficence questionnaire. The results indicated a significant difference between the groups on the social axis of the political compass, considering t(122) = 2.16 and p < 0.05. Specifically, humanities students (-2.92±1.77) scored significantly lower than technical students (-2.22±1.82). The Pearson correlation analysis, conducted with an equal number of participants (n = 67), revealed a significant negative correlation between the social axis of the political compass and the relativity subscale of the standard moral ideology classification questionnaire (r = –0.27 and p < 0.05). In addition, a significant positive correlation was found between the relativity subscale of the standard moral ideology classification questionnaire and the beneficence questionnaire (r = 0.38 and p < 0.01).
Conclusion
The final results indicated a significant difference between technical and humanities students on the social axis of the political compass.
Humanities students scored more negatively than technical students, suggesting a stronger tendency toward libertarian beliefs. By contrast, technical students demonstrated a greater inclination toward authoritarian beliefs. Furthermore, a significant negative correlation was observed between the social axis of the political compass and the relativity subscale of the standard moral ideology classification questionnaire. A significant positive correlation was also found between the relativity subscale and the beneficence questionnaire. Previous studies demonstrated a relationship between brain structure and political tendencies. Specifically, individuals with libertarian tendencies tend to have a larger anterior cingulate cortex, while more conservative individuals with authoritarian tendencies tend to have a larger right amygdala. In light of these findings, the results of the present study suggest the possibility of differences in brain structure between students in the humanities and those in technical fields. In other words, there appears to be a meaningful relationship between educational background, cognitive brain function, and political orientation.
Acknowledgments
This article is derived from. Yalda Nikpour’s master’s thesis, conducted at the Department of Political Science at Kharazmi University under the supervision of Dr. Reza Khalili, with the collaboration and guidance of Dr. Mirshahram Safari, faculty member of the Neuroscience Research Center at Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences. The authors sincerely thank both institutions for their support and for providing the opportunity to carry out this research.