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> Left-wing brain - Right-wing brain
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| 1. Wednesday, September 12, 2007 3:13 PM |
| Booth |
Left-wing brain - Right-wing brain |
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Study finds left-wing brain, right-wing brain Even in humdrum nonpolitical decisions, liberals and conservatives literally think differently, researchers show. By Denise Gellene, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
September 10, 2007 Exploring the neurobiology of politics, scientists have found that liberals tolerate ambiguity and conflict better than conservatives because of how their brains work.
In a simple experiment reported todayin the journal Nature Neuroscience, scientists at New York University and UCLA show that political orientation is related to differences in how the brain processes information.
Previous psychological studies have found that conservatives tend to be more structured and persistent in their judgments whereas liberals are more open to new experiences. The latest study found those traits are not confined to political situations but also influence everyday decisions.
The results show "there are two cognitive styles -- a liberal style and a conservative style," said UCLA neurologist Dr. Marco Iacoboni, who was not connected to the latest research.
Participants were college students whose politics ranged from "very liberal" to "very conservative." They were instructed to tap a keyboard when an M appeared on a computer monitor and to refrain from tapping when they saw a W.
M appeared four times more frequently than W, conditioning participants to press a key in knee-jerk fashion whenever they saw a letter.
Each participant was wired to an electroencephalograph that recorded activity in the anterior cingulate cortex, the part of the brain that detects conflicts between a habitual tendency (pressing a key) and a more appropriate response (not pressing the key). Liberals had more brain activity and made fewer mistakes than conservatives when they saw a W, researchers said. Liberals and conservatives were equally accurate in recognizing M.
Researchers got the same results when they repeated the experiment in reverse, asking another set of participants to tap when a W appeared.
Frank J. Sulloway, a researcher at UC Berkeley's Institute of Personality and Social Research who was not connected to the study, said the results "provided an elegant demonstration that individual differences on a conservative-liberal dimension are strongly related to brain activity."
Analyzing the data, Sulloway said liberals were 4.9 times as likely as conservatives to show activity in the brain circuits that deal with conflicts, and 2.2 times as likely to score in the top half of the distribution for accuracy.
Sulloway said the results could explain why President Bush demonstrated a single-minded commitment to the Iraq war and why some people perceived Sen. John F. Kerry, the liberal Massachusetts Democrat who opposed Bush in the 2004 presidential race, as a "flip-flopper" for changing his mind about the conflict.
Based on the results, he said, liberals could be expected to more readily accept new social, scientific or religious ideas.
"There is ample data from the history of science showing that social and political liberals indeed do tend to support major revolutions in science," said Sulloway, who has written about the history of science and has studied behavioral differences between conservatives and liberals.
Lead author David Amodio, an assistant professor of psychology at New York University, cautioned that the study looked at a narrow range of human behavior and that it would be a mistake to conclude that one political orientation was better. The tendency of conservatives to block distracting information could be a good thing depending on the situation, he said.
Political orientation, he noted, occurs along a spectrum, and positions on specific issues, such as taxes, are influenced by many factors, including education and wealth. Some liberals oppose higher taxes and some conservatives favor abortion rights.
Still, he acknowledged that a meeting of the minds between conservatives and liberals looked difficult given the study results.
"Does this mean liberals and conservatives are never going to agree?" Amodio asked. "Maybe it suggests one reason why they tend not to get along."
http://www.latimes.com/news/science/la-sci-politics10sep10,0,5982337.story?coll=la-home-center
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| 2. Thursday, September 13, 2007 9:31 AM |
| nuart |
RE: Left-wing brain - Right-wing brain |
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Exploring the neurobiology of politics, scientists have found that liberals tolerate ambiguity and conflict better than conservatives because of how their brains work. Oh, it was "scientists" who found this, huh? Who am I to question SCIENCE ? Tee hee.
It was SCIENCE that the Phil Spector defense team wanted the jury to trust in their closing arguments. SCIENCE tells us that blood doesn't splatter like that unless the victim shot herself. In Phil Spector's house. With his gun. Mere hours after meeting him. Strange suicidal tendencies? What can I say? It's SCIENCE.
It was SCIENCE that the Mahahaharishi wants to cite when he gives you Dr. John Hagelin (failed former presidential candidate) and the Quantum Sophisticated Physics of Vedic Flying. Trust us. It's scientific. There's even a formula for World Peace. It's mathematical. But there's lotsa math in SCIENCE, doncha know.
And now, the ever trustworthy LA Times wants to invoke SCIENCE to explain liberal-conservative BRAINS. Oh chuckle loudly. This reminds me of the anti-death penalty cries to study the brains of murderers instead of killing them.
Oh well, the commentary and the "research" came from the likes of UCLA, UC Berkeley and NYU, bastions of conservative thinking, so I think there's a lot of validity to their observations.
Maybe what's more remarkable about the "study" is the fact that it was done at all. Funny article though, Booth, and I thank you for it as I hadn't read it in my paper newspaper. Wishy-washing versus open-minded. Rigid versus committed. SCIENCE will study the nuances. The LA Times will report it.
Susan
“Half a truth is often a great lie.” Ben Franklin
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| 3. Thursday, September 13, 2007 10:04 AM |
| Booth |
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| QUOTE:
Maybe what's more remarkable about the "study" is the fact that it was done at all.
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New study gives researchers cancer.
I have come to believe that if you can think of it, someone is doing a study of it. It's like a modified rule 34.
Maybe not everything, but at least the things that might cause cancer.
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| 4. Friday, September 14, 2007 11:49 AM |
| one suave folk |
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Conservative Susan rigidly resists this scientific data, while liberal me is open to the concept. See, it completely contradi-- oh, wait. Never mind...
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| 5. Saturday, September 15, 2007 5:43 AM |
| cybacaT |
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Democrat voters have BRAINS?? Jordan!! You lied to me!!
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| 6. Saturday, September 15, 2007 7:13 AM |
| jordan |
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i'm just waiting for the new study that says there's a political slant gene out there, and we're all born with our political inclinations.... 
Jordan .
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| 7. Saturday, September 15, 2007 10:31 AM |
| nuart |
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| QUOTE:i'm just waiting for the new study that says there's a political slant gene out there, and we're all born with our political inclinations.... |
Hope that new study will include the 'born agains' such as yours truly. Susan
“Half a truth is often a great lie.” Ben Franklin
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| 8. Thursday, March 20, 2008 6:24 PM |
| belladawna |
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omg that's classic. i read neuroscience books for fun. love it. some people don't even think in their right mind or even from their left mind before doing something. so, i wonder what side of dubs' brain does he use eh? haha
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| 9. Sunday, March 23, 2008 12:03 PM |
| John Neff |
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Where's the Libertarian Brain? I feel left out, or right out, er... or something out...
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| 10. Saturday, April 5, 2008 9:05 PM |
| 12rainbow |
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QUOTE:
M appeared four times more frequently than W, conditioning participants to press a key in knee-jerk fashion whenever they saw a letter.
...
Sulloway said the results could explain why President Bush demonstrated a single-minded commitment to the Iraq war and why some people perceived Sen. John F. Kerry, the liberal Massachusetts Democrat who opposed Bush in the 2004 presidential race, as a "flip-flopper" for changing his mind about the conflict.
Based on the results, he said, liberals could be expected to more readily accept new social, scientific or religious ideas.
... |
So liberals are reactionary, wishy-washy, and gullible? Gosh, we didn't need a study to confirm that, did we? I'm with you, John. There must be a part of the brain wired for intelligent self-interest and healthy skepticism.
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| 11. Sunday, April 6, 2008 12:52 PM |
| KahlanMnel |
RE: Left-wing brain - Right-wing brain |
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Man, there are just some things that aren't worth wasting grant money on. This would be one of them. Why in the f**k are we constantly trying to compartmentalize people? The most irritating thing about this study is that it's about the brain, which doctors and scientists have repeatedly admitted that they still don't know enough about to really interpret some of the ways in which it functions. Not to mention that testing should have been performed on people not under the duress of pulling off a passing GPA for the term. The thing we need to keep in mind is that you can't colour the entire scientific community because you either disagree with the science behind the study or because a scientist (or group of 'em) misrepresents their data, sometimes intentionally, sometimes not. Unfortunately it's often enough to push doubt of science even further into our minds. The biggest manipulators and abusers of science aren't scientists though; it's the rest of us who interpret it freely to suit whatever we need. If there's even the slightest bit of doubt in the data, we use it to our advantage (and in good solid science, there should always be even the tiniest fraction of doubt in the data; it's poor form to say that something is 100% absolutely positively true and accurate). The problem is that we're getting a lot of this "science" through the media outlets, and they will print the information that will interest us most, not necessarily all the information relevant to the whole story. I would be willing to bet if we read the actual complete research report, we would find it a little less solid about the "facts" we've been presented with. My guess is that it will be unbiased, impartial, and presenting mostly numerical data with margins of error calculated and included. Lesson learned here: Don't believe in scientific findings just because the media tells you to...
~ Amanda "Just fear me, love me, do as I say and I will be your slave..." 
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