Study: Bush supporters have stonger anti-black bias than liberals

[Bush_Eats_Beef]

Looks like Kanye West was right...

Study Ties Political Leanings to Hidden Biases

By Shankar Vedantam
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, January 30, 2006; A05

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/01/29/AR2006012900642_pf.html

Emory University psychologist Drew Westen put self-identified Democratic and Republican partisans in brain scanners and asked them to evaluate negative information about various candidates. Both groups were quick to spot inconsistency and hypocrisy -- but only in candidates they opposed.

When presented with negative information about the candidates they liked, partisans of all stripes found ways to discount it, Westen said. When the unpalatable information was rejected, furthermore, the brain scans showed that volunteers gave themselves feel-good pats -- the scans showed that "reward centers" in volunteers' brains were activated. The psychologist observed that the way these subjects dealt with unwelcome information had curious parallels with drug addiction as addicts also reward themselves for wrong-headed behavior.

Another study presented at the conference, which was in Palm Springs, Calif., explored relationships between racial bias and political affiliation by analyzing self-reported beliefs, voting patterns and the results of psychological tests that measure implicit attitudes -- subtle stereotypes people hold about various groups.

That study found that supporters of President Bush and other conservatives had stronger self-admitted and implicit biases against blacks than liberals did.

[Rocknrule]

1. Really? No shit!

:eyes:

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

2. Water is wet. Fire is hot. Pope is a Catholic. Dubya is stupid.

And, further startling discoveries of the obvious.

[Imagevision]

3. What would you expect from the RED states??!!

3200 people still unaccounted for in new Orleans because of Katrina and Bush slow response to send help!

[Yollam]

4. Duh.

NT