freckles

PARIS (AFP) - The brain neurons of liberals and conservatives fire differently when confronted with tough choices, suggesting that some political divides may be hard-wired, according a study released Sunday.

Aristotle may have been more on the mark than he realised when he said that man is by nature a political animal.

Dozens of previous studies have established a strong link between political persuasion and certain personality traits.

Conservatives tend to crave order and structure in their lives, and are more consistent in the way they make decisions. Liberals, by contrast, show a higher tolerance for ambiguity and complexity, and adapt more easily to unexpected circumstances.

The affinity between political views and "cognitive style" has also been shown to be heritable, handed down from parents to children, said the study, published in the British journal Nature Neuroscience.

Intrigued by these correlations, New York University political scientist David Amodio and colleagues decided to find out if the brains of liberals and conservatives reacted differently to the same stimuli.

A group of 43 right-handed subjects were asked to perform a series of computer tests designed to evaluate their unrehearsed response to cues urging them to break a well-established routine.

"People often drive home from work on the same route, day after day, such that it becomes habitual and doesn't involve much thinking," Amodio explained by way of comparison in an e-mail.

"But occasionally there is road work, or perhaps an animal crosses the road, and you need to break out of your habitual response in order to deal with this new information."

Using electroencephalographs, which measure neuronal impulses, the researchers examined activity in a part of the brain -- the anterior cingulate cortex -- that is strongly linked with the self-regulatory process of conflict monitoring.

The match-up was unmistakable: respondents who had described themselves as liberals showed "significantly greater conflict-related neural activity" when the hypothetical situation called for an unscheduled break in routine.

Conservatives, however, were less flexible, refusing to deviate from old habits "despite signals that this ... should be changed."

Whether that is good or bad, of course, depends on one's perspective: one could interpret the results to mean that liberals are nimble-minded and conservatives rigid and stubborn.

Or one could, with equal justice, conclude that wishy-washy liberals don't stick to their guns, while conservatives and steadfast and loyal.

As to the more intriguing question of which comes first, the patterns in neuron activity or the political orientation, Amodio is reluctant to hazard a guess.

"The neural mechanisms for conflict monitoring are formed early in childhood," and are probably rooted in part in our genetic heritage, he said.

"But even if genes may provide a blueprint for more liberal or conservative orientations, they are shaped substantially by one's environment over the course of development," he added.

Obscuring causal links even more is the fact that the brain is malleable and neural functions can change as a result of new experiences.

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Ausinus

Interesting. I wonder if this has anything to do with the age difference that seems to be prevalent between liberals and conservatives?

Zarathustra

Like Churchill says if your not liberal by the time your twenty, you've got no heart. If you aren't conservative by the time your thirty, you've got no brain.

So I hope we're all proud of ourselves, sacrificing soldiers for a country that would send a man to prision for throwing shoes.
- Sparta on Iraq


The question in my mind is how many additional American casualties is Saddam worth? And the answer is not very damned many.

~Dick Cheney

"You do not know what genocide is, do you? It means the irradication of a race to obliviation through death."
- Tick

Zarathustra

Or maybe he said Communist? I dunno....

So I hope we're all proud of ourselves, sacrificing soldiers for a country that would send a man to prision for throwing shoes.
- Sparta on Iraq


The question in my mind is how many additional American casualties is Saddam worth? And the answer is not very damned many.

~Dick Cheney

"You do not know what genocide is, do you? It means the irradication of a race to obliviation through death."
- Tick

freckles

Urband Legend

Zarathustra

Damn....

So I hope we're all proud of ourselves, sacrificing soldiers for a country that would send a man to prision for throwing shoes.
- Sparta on Iraq


The question in my mind is how many additional American casualties is Saddam worth? And the answer is not very damned many.

~Dick Cheney

"You do not know what genocide is, do you? It means the irradication of a race to obliviation through death."
- Tick

Blueneck

Sounds like right wingers are left-brained and vise versa. I suspected that all along.

johnflesh

This is true for me. Up until I had a child, at 27 I was fairly liberal and after I have found more of my conservative roots. Now that I'm 31 I realized both are blowhards obsessed with power and it isn't exactly surprising that someone needs to put these brains under microscopes to see what is going on.

I wonder what people's brains look like who think politics are bullshit. If its no brain function well that is known as bliss, if its to much brain function well that seems to be what keeps me up too late at night thinking.

American People 08'

freckles

For Craig.


I need more characters...

Elvis

I'd guess increased neuronal activity in whatever area of the brain we associate with critical thinking.