You know the Repubs are desperate when they say Democrats do it too

[ProSense]

Study: Democrats, Republicans Both Ignore Facts
Tuesday, January 24, 2006
By LiveScience Staff

Snip...

The tests involved pairs of statements by the candidates, President George W. Bush and Sen. John Kerry, that clearly contradicted each other.

The test subjects were asked to consider and rate the discrepancy. Then they were presented with another statement that might explain away the contradiction.

The scenario was repeated several times for each candidate.

The brain imaging revealed a consistent pattern. Both Republicans and Democrats consistently denied obvious contradictions for their own candidate but detected contradictions in the opposing candidate.


http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,182641,00.html

Now the facts:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=273&topic_id=61453&mesg_id=61456

[karynnj]

1. The stupid thing about the story is that they leave out the key

component - the obvious "contradictions". I guess because I have no memory of ever seeing anything illogical in anything Kerry said - either the study is correct or maybe Kerry makes sense. To prove its's the first, it would be nice to have a list of the "errors".

[MH1]

2. Oh, worse than that - They leave out a key method of the study!

Now that you've read the faux version, try a (more) real version:

http://www.newsobserver.com/114/story/391953.html

Ardor wins, logic loses in the brain
Benedict Carey, The New York Times

"Everything we know about cognition suggests that, when faced with a contradiction, we use the rational regions of our brain to think about it, but that was not the case here," said Dr. Drew Westen (ed. note - same study!), a psychologist at Emory and lead author of the study, to be presented Saturday at meetings of the Society for Personality and Social Psychology in Palm Springs, Calif.

(snip)

In 2004, the researchers recruited 30 adult men, 15 who described themselves as committed Republicans and 15 as committed Democrats. They sat in an MRI machine and considered several statements in quick succession.

The first was a quote attributed to one of two candidates: either a remark by President Bush supporting Kenneth L. Lay, the former Enron chief, before he was indicted; or a statement by Sen. John Kerry that Social Security should be overhauled. Moments later, the participants read a remark that showed the candidate reversing his position. The quotes, presented as factual, were doctored for maximum effect.

The Republican subjects judged Kerry as harshly as the Democrats judged Bush. But each group let its own candidate off the hook.

What part of "the quotes were doctored" does Faux not want its readers to understand?

[MH1]

3. We should make sure Media Matters picks this up.

After reading the Faux story again, they really did present the study falsely, that is, if the other story is accurate (and I can see no reason why Carey would have made up that the quotes were doctored).

[MH1]

5. Well I emailed it to Media Matters.

I wonder if they'll see it the way I did.

I also picked up (and included in my email) that Fox concluded,

The study points to a total lack of reason in political decision-making.

Note, that is not a quote from the study's author, however they did give a quote by him that almost says that.

While the News Observor version gives this quote from Westen:

It is possible to override these biases, Westen said, "but you have to engage in ruthless self-reflection, to say, 'All right, I know what I want to believe, but I have to be honest.' "

Gee, a rather different picture painted, huh?

[ProSense]

6. MH1, would you mind

posting this in the GD thread about the Daou article. Someone responded to my post and mentioned this, just want to share the information. Thanks.

[MH1]

7. Oh I missed this earlier.

If I can still find the thread I will. I did post these comments earlier to at least one thread in GD or GD-P.

btw, always feel free to re-post any of my comments like this (analytical, and even ranting - if I posted it here, it's public anyway), and just say "as MH1 posted elsewhere" or something like that. I don't always see replies to my posts, like happened today. I really would be flattered, rather than mind having someone repost my stuff!

[sandnsea]

4. I can tell you this study was fixed

They couldn't possibly have found 15 men to consistently stick up for Kerry anywhere in the country. :evilgrin:

Not unless every single one of our Kerry guys participated.