03 November 2000

The experiments were carried out in the House of Commons by scientists from at-Bristol, the South West’s world-class science, nature and arts attraction, as part of an exhibition to raise awareness of this brand new visitor destination as a major lottery-funded Millennium success story. Of all the MPs who agreed to take part, the startling conclusion that emerged was that Margaret Thatcher almost universally provoked the strongest reaction – shocking news indeed for confirmed Labour supporters, although the strongest response need not be governed by admiration! These findings also contrasted with the results obtained from testing members of the general public, who most often reacted instinctively to the overtly sexual imagery, or to natural fears such as arachnophobia.

Using equipment designed by the University of the West of England which is similar to a permanent exhibit in the Explore-at-Bristol hands-on science centre, the test works by measuring the electrical resistance of the subject’s skin, when they put their fingers into metal ‘thimbles’. This gives an indication of how much they are sweating – one of the human body’s tell-tale signs betraying arousal or stress. After watching a series of nine images on a computer screen – from a spider, skull, semi-naked man and woman, lesbian kiss and a patient’s eye-view from the operating table, to portraits of Jeremy Paxman, Tony Blair and of course, Lady Thatcher – it is then possible to pull up graphs that show which one they responded to the most.

Dr. Kathy Sykes, Senior Science Consultant for at-Bristol, comments: "I was amazed that so many MPs reacted more to Maggie Thatcher than to Denise van Outen’s bare flesh. Most people respond to the images of scantily clad men and women, so why should MPs be any different?"

Valerie Davey, MP for Bristol South, adds: "'On reflection I am surprised that Margaret Thatcher still evokes such a strong response - but I am equally stunned that a picture of surgeons produced such an innate response in me'

The skin resistance response is known as the 'Galvanic Skin Response', relating to its effect on the level of activity in the sympathetic nervous system which controls our bodies – often in an unconscious way. The user is not aware of which image they are reacting to the most but what is detected, is any one of several emotional responses – eg fear, anger, lust, surprise, embarrassment. Similar to the scientific principles behind lie-detectors, this kind of equipment is often used in psychology experiments. For example, students may show people a series of words very quickly & ask them which ones they recognize. If 'emotional' words (e.g. swear words) are flipped up too quickly to see, the subjects will not report having seen them - but their galvanic skin response shows that they were subliminally aware of it.

Notes to Editors: