This Is Your Brain on Politics (NYT)

[sherilocks]

By JOSHUA FREEDMAN

Published: January 18, 2005

Los Angeles — PRESIDENT BUSH begins his second term this week as the leader of a nation that appears to be sharply divided. Since the election, there's been endless discussion about the growing gap between "red" and "blue" America. When former President Bill Clinton said a few months ago that he was probably the only person in America who liked both Mr. Bush and Senator John Kerry, it seemed it might be true.

Yet, surprisingly, recent neuroscience research suggests that Democrats and Republicans are not nearly as far apart as they seem. In fact, there is empirical evidence that even the fiercest partisans may instinctively like both Mr. Bush and Mr. Kerry, although they struggle against this collaborative impulse.

During the eight months before the election, I was part of a group of political professionals and scientists from the University of California, Los Angeles, who used functional magnetic resonance imaging, or f.M.R.I., to scan the brains of 10 Republicans and 10 Democrats, producing images like those seen above. We measured brain activity while subjects looked at political advertisements and at images of the presidential candidates.

The news media have focused on our finding that the amygdala, a part of the brain that responds to danger, was more heightened in Democrats when viewing scenes of 9/11 than in Republicans. This might seem to indicate fundamental differences, but other aspects of our results suggest striking commonalities.


<snip>

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/01/18/opinion/18freedman.html

[lostnfound]

1. Total fluff. Politics of personality once again substitutes for substance.

NYT waving the silk handkerchief again. Watch the pretty colors, readers, and hear our soothing voice.

[atommom]

2. Fluff, and a waste of bandwidth!

And my amygdala does not like GWB, no matter what the NYT says. The man doesn't even have a functioning prefrontal cortex. :P