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FLAGS are powerful symbols. They appear on ships, parliaments, schools, lapels and even—sometimes—underwear. Exactly what effect they have on people’s behaviour, though, is seldom a topic of scientific inquiry.
Melissa Ferguson of Cornell University is trying to change that. In 2007 she and her colleagues conducted a study in Israel. They found that those who had had subliminal exposure to their country’s flag before being asked their political views expressed more moderate opinions about the Palestinian conflict than did those who were not shown the flag. Now Dr Ferguson has tried something similar in America, and found what some might see as a rather different effect: an enhanced tendency to vote Republican.
Her experiment began during the run-up to the presidential election of 2008. She recruited a pool of 396 participants via an online advertisement. Between September 19th and October 10th these volunteers were asked to fill in an online questionnaire that inquired, among other things, about their voting intentions. In particular, it asked them to indicate whether they planned to vote for Barack Obama or John McCain. The volunteers were also asked to rate their warmth towards each of the main political parties. In return for their time, participants received a $10 gift certificate.

A. 어휘
FLAGS 깃발. The Stars and Stripes 星條旗(성조기).
outcomes 결과. parliaments 의회. lapel 접은 옷깃. inquiry 연구, 질문.
subliminal 의식되지 않는, 潛在意識(잠재의식)의. exposure 노출.
moderate 온건한. conflict 갈등, 動亂(동란), 전쟁.
enhanced 강화된. run-up 전단계의, 준비기간의. participants 참가자.
via=by means of ...에 의하여. questionnaire 질문서.
rate 평가하다. gift certificate 상품권. Barack Obama 민주당 대통령후보.
John McCain 공화당 대통령후보.