Liberal? Conservative? Your brains are different, study finds

[cleanhippie]

Liberals and Conservatives may have differences that go well beyond their opinions about what constitutes contempt of Parliament.

A British study suggests there are anatomical differences between the brains of opponents on the left and right of the political spectrum.

The study, published in the online edition of Current Biology, found people who identified themselves as liberal tended to have larger anterior cingulate cortexes, a region of the brain that monitors uncertainty and conflict. Those who identified themselves as conservative had larger amygdalas, a region that processes emotions related to fear.

Read more: http://www.vancouversun.com/technology/Liberal+Conservative+Your+brains+different+study+finds/4580174/story.html#ixzz1J2M3JOvS

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Certainly explains a lot.

[Horse with no Name]

1. I told you they were a bunch of fucking cowards. n/t

[Kolesar]

2. And what about that "whininess"?

Is that a way to deal with fear??

[IndyPragmatist]

4. Vancouver Sun is a bit behind the times....

This study was released many months ago, and is really poor work.

A couple of reasons for that. 1. Everyone already knew that political views are impacted by differences in the brain. 2. They decided to only look at some of the functions of those parts of the brain that fit their agenda.

"Those who identified themselves as conservative had larger amygdalas, a region that processes emotions related to fear." While this is true, you could also say "Those who identified themselves as conservative had larger amygdalas, a region that controls which memories are stored long term."

"people who identified themselves as liberal tended to have larger anterior cingulate cortexes, a region of the brain that monitors uncertainty and conflict. " This could also read "people who identified themselves as liberal tended to have larger anterior cingulate cortexes, a region of the brain that controls reward recognition."


Back in my graduate study when I was looking to go into med school, if I would have produced something like this, I would have failed. They got great results, but their conclusions were terrible.

Also, using conservative vs liberal is a very risky way to go about this. These words vary quite a bit across the world and even within the United States. Think about it, how often do you hear people claim they are liberal but yet are not even close. They may believe they are liberal, but their actions speak the same way. Just like Bush was not a conservative. He was a neo-con. True conservatives are much closer to what the tea-party represents, not the Neo-cons that controlled the Republican party for the last 20 years.

[teachthemwell15]

3. This article and others reporting on this research

certainly point to a glaring aspect of the exponential rise during the last 50 years or so of christian fundamentalism here in America and now in other areas of the world. Fear and anxiety are ---the--- main ingredients the Robertsons, Falwells, etc have fed upon and suckered their congregants to maintain their hideous voo-doo versions of christianity for their benefit. The authoritarian personality can be traced to this phenomenon and it is scary.

Those who suffer the disorder of enlarged amygdalas (maybe a new term can be coined, 'hyperamygdala', just kidding of course, but hey..) are the victims of their 'leaders' where the symbiotic relationship of dependency on both sides shows no signs of abating.

It's a sad and pathetic situation, but what's dangerous (goes without saying) is the influence of that condition on the policies in this country. We've seen it up close and extremely personal for the past four decades. It has to stop.

[tigereye]

5. brain functions and interactions are highly complex

articles about neuroscience in general publications like newspapers tend to be very simplistic and overstate much more tenuous connections and correlations..