Red brains versus blue brains

A new study says conservatives and liberals have differences in their brain chemistry.

If you've staked out a spot on either side of the "red" versus "blue" ideological divide, you probably already suspected this. But now, researchers say they have demonstrated actual neurological differences between the brains of liberals and conservatives.

According to the Sacramento Bee, scientists at New York University have discovered that those on opposite sides of the political fence use different parts of their brains when making instant decisions.

"Political attitudes are dispositional in nature, almost more like personalities," David Amodio, a psychology professor at NYU and the lead researcher on the study, told the Bee. "They're not necessarily a choice."

In truth, this really should come as no surprise to anyone. If you're a liberal, you have no doubt that conservatives have some sort of mental dysfunction, and the same is equally true, if not more so, when conservatives consider liberals' thought processes.

Yet, to have this borne out by actual science is quite impressive, particularly with an election cycle just getting underway.

Just think. Instead of casting a ballot, voters could just undertake a quick brain scan in order to have their political say. Of course, that would leave independents out of the picture. But that's a problem for another day.

[Dalkorian]

I *knew* it!

I always knew conservatives were mentally challenged .... just
kidding!
:-D

[UrbanBard]

Even if this were true, which I doubt...

Even if this were true, which I doubt, the article is not clear what
the meaning of this is.

What does the test prove? That Conservatives are more likely, on
a snap decision, to take a chance of being wrong. It's not as
though the errors were that much larger. Conservative would
guess wrong 50% of the time while the liberals guessed 33%. So,
you could easily say that Conservatives were more open minded
and adventuresome. Or anything else you wanted to read into
the data.

I dislike these studies because they are so often rigged to
provide the results the professor wanted. These arguments of
which is better, Left or Right, tend to be deterministic and
determinism has consistently been proven false.

Long ago I was a liberal. When I changed my politics, did I use a
different potion of my brain? No, I simply grew up, learned some
economics and science .I stopped believing that every solution is
a political solution. Did I become more of a risk taker? Not so I
could tell.

[WJeansonne]

Me too!

I will never, ever understand how or why Liberals think the way they do! :-)

[scratchss]

always knew they were crazy

those peeps just dont think straight.

[imacpwr]

Conservatives have brains...???

From being squeezed by their narrow-mindedness surely it can't
be larger than a peanut..

[GGGlen]

Hypocrisy at its finest

If ever there were a phrase uttered to display Liberal narrow-
mindedness, you just nailed it!

[ralfthedog]

Incorrect link.incorrect link.

The link given in this story was to the "print this page" version of the story.

Here is the correct link.

http://www.sacbee.com/101/story/370339.html

The C/Net author must be a conservative. :)

[ralfthedog]

My mistake.

The first time I tried the link to the main story, It did not ask me for a password. The second time it did. I guess linking to a version that does not require registration is better.

[real_bgiel]

Liberals have brains...???

Anybody with a functional brain is probably not reading this article.

[bemenaker]

So,

that means you don't have a functioning brain, and by your headline, you are a staunch conservative. Way to publicly dis yourself. Nice.