Funny, I always thought being a Republican was a lifestyle choice. Now I see that they're born that way. Still, with gene therapy, anything is possible.
From the LA Times:
In a simple experiment reported today in 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.
As a lefty I guess I should be beating my chest and handing out "I told you so's" wrapped in red foil snark. Some in the progressive blogosphere see this as a vindication. Proof of..well, everything they hate about conservatism, but I'm not sold. One, this study seems to be abiding but that most convenient of Western World blunders, the dualism. There are only two political ideologies? Wha?
Secondly, when it comes to politics there are really only two tests that matters:
The Milgram Test:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milgram_experiment
and this one:
http://www.prisonexp.org/
No one is immune. Over two thirds of subjects failed the milgram. Authoritarianism can co-opt any ideological system
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