Closed Minds/Dems-Repubs Adept at Ignoring Facts(really,who knew?)

[katty]

excerpt from:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/

Researchers asked staunch party members from both sides to evaluate information that threatened their preferred candidate prior to the 2004 Presidential election. The subjects' brains were monitored while they pondered.

The results were announced today.

"We did not see any increased activation of the parts of the brain normally engaged during reasoning," said Drew Westen, director of clinical psychology at Emory University. "What we saw instead was a network of emotion circuits lighting up, including circuits hypothesized to be involved in regulating emotion, and circuits known to be involved in resolving conflicts."

Bias on both sides
The test subjects on both sides of the political aisle reached totally biased conclusions by ignoring information that could not rationally be discounted, Westen and his colleagues say.

Then, with their minds made up, brain activity ceased in the areas that deal with negative emotions such as disgust.

[MH1]

1. This story is biased (who knew?) - try another version.

First, the full link to the MSNBC version:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/11009379/

Now, a more neutrally written piece, which includes a key fact about the method of the study, and a moderation of the conclusion:
http://www.newsobserver.com/114/story/391953.html

Also note that the MSNBC version also appears on Faux. That should tell you all you need to know.

Here's a link to where I discussed the differences earlier:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=273&topic_id=66074&mesg_id=66101

[MH1]

2. More discussion here...

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=273&topic_id=66074&mesg_id=66105

[katty]

3. AWARE that it's biased-it's laughable

[MH1]

4. Oh, I'm sure you did...

but I wanted to be sure it was spelled out very clearly. ;-)

And the other article just really makes it obvious, doesn't it?

[bemildred]

5. Even without MSRNC tarting it up, it's drool.

Mr. Spock is going to be deeply troubled by the idea that ideologues are not rational.