What's Marriage Worth?

The two groups who saw the photo before rating Donald judged the mystery man to be more aggressive than those who did not see Bush. Two other studies involving about 400 other students confirmed and amplified those findings, the research team reported last month in a paper they presented at a meeting of the American Psychological Society in Chicago.

Hmmm, interesting. But what would happen if those same students were shown pictures of another president involved in contentious and divisive issues -- say, Bill Clinton?

In fact, the researchers did exactly that. In a third study, they showed students pictures of Bush and Clinton, then asked them to categorize words as either helpful or aggressive. Unlike the earlier study, partisanship mattered: Republicans were faster to characterize helpful words when they followed pictures of Bush and faster to characterize aggressive thoughts when they followed snapshots of Clinton. For Democrats, the pattern was exactly reversed.

These experiments amount to more than mere fun-and-games in the psych lab, the researchers insist. Since it's hard to turn on the TV these days without seeing the president, "images of President Bush in the media may have the unintended consequence of activating aggressive thoughts and inhibiting helpful ones," at least among political liberals, they reported. "These results highlight the possible wide-ranging cost of this effect."

Speaking of anger, if the situation in Iraq is making you mad, here's an idea to lower your blood pressure: Go to church at least once a week.

More than six in 10 Americans who rarely or never go to church said the war in Iraq makes them "angry," as compared to barely half of those who attend services weekly or more often, according to the latest Washington Post-ABC News poll. Frequent church attenders also were more likely to say they felt "hopeful" and "proud" about the war, in large part because churchgoers as a group include a disproportionate percentage of Republicans and supporters of the president's Iraq policies.

The poll results are based on telephone interviews with 1,005 randomly selected adults. The survey, which was conducted May 20 to 23, has a margin of error of plus or minus 3 percentage points.

morinr@washpost.com