Brain differences between liberals and conservatives?

JerryLove · 09-11-2007, 11:16 AM

http://www.latimes.com/news/science/...ck=1&cset=true

Lightknight · 09-11-2007, 11:29 AM

Not a member. Could you flesh some of whatever it says out for me?

tlj009 · 09-11-2007, 11:31 AM

In short the study shows that liberals are wishy-washy in everything they do and conservatives are stubborn in everything they do. Did someone really expect conservatives to only be conservative in politics and not in all aspects of their life?

Try this link:

http://www.latimes.com/news/science/...la-home-center

Lightknight · 09-11-2007, 11:34 AM

Uh... I've met a number of people on both sides that are different. The location where the survey was taken might be an issue here.

For example, would it seriously say that there aren't numerous liberals who are incredibly stubborn in their ways?

+SEAL+ · 09-11-2007, 11:38 AM

No duh. I could've told you that. The thing is, I suspect there's not really a fundamental brain difference between liberals and conservatives. Rather, what happens is that as you get deeper into your political ideology, your brain wires itself logically according to that ideology. You continue to think conservatively, you tend to stand behind your decisions. You continue to think liberally, you tend to change and adjust your decisions.

I'm a moderate, so I wonder what that means for my brain...

Jenacen · 09-11-2007, 11:42 AM

So it is now empirically proven that liberals are smarter? Because the study reflects that liberals mentally fit what they think a politician should look like?

tlj009 · 09-11-2007, 11:42 AM

Quote:

Uh... I've met a number of people on both sides that are different. The location where the survey was taken might be an issue here.

For example, would it seriously say that there aren't numerous liberals who are incredibly stubborn in their ways?

You should be able to use the link that I posted. But no it doesn't say that liberals can't be stubborn in their ways. It says that conservatives are more structured and persistant and that liberals are more open to new experiences. All that is aparently because of different cognitive styles. They did the study to show that conservatives are more susceptible to habitual tendencies. So it would imply that conservatives don't really think about the answer, they just answer out of habit and are therefore wrong more often than liberals.

Lightknight · 09-11-2007, 11:47 AM

But again, I have known far to many stubborn liberals. Like PETA, for example, or the terrorist animal rights activists (PETA tends to only be a financial supporter of the terrorist ones, not an actual one). If they believe they're right, there's no end to what they're willing to do for it. But as far as being willing to try more things? Is it reasonable to say that Liberals are less likely to be believers and therefore morally depraved? Oh no, I'm too structured to think of a three-way as a good thing

.

Oh well, it really doesn't matter as neither side is exactly getting a positive spin.

JerryLove · 09-11-2007, 03:38 PM

Sorry. Didn't realize the link was asking for a login. Linking from Slashdot doesn't seem to have that problem.

Some (hopefully fair-use) excripts:

Quote:

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.

Quote:

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.

Basically they took a bunch of voulenteers and asked them to identify them as "liberal" or "conservative" (a sliding chart of options, to be accurate).

They then hooked up the coulenteers to a device for monitoring brain activitiy. They flashed "M" and "W" in front of the subjects and told them to press a button for M and nothing for W. They then programmed the subjects by showing "M" four-times as often as "W" (this was also all tested with the letters in reverse).

The short version: conservatives were more programmable. Both sides were equally accurate with "M", but liberals were far more accurate with "W" (and I believe a bit slower).

The study also discusses the result of the monitoring ad which sections of the brian were involved.

Quote:

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.

normajean777 · 09-13-2007, 09:56 PM

I don't think you can generalize stuff like this. Besides there isn't a whole lot of difference between moderate liberals and conservatives. They can't accurately find a major difference (or if they could, I wouldn't say its credible). Either way this doesn't really say much about anything, and I wouldn't think too much about it.

JerryLove · 09-13-2007, 10:44 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by normajean777

I don't think you can generalize stuff like this. Besides there isn't a whole lot of difference between moderate liberals and conservatives. They can't accurately find a major difference (or if they could, I wouldn't say its credible). Either way this doesn't really say much about anything, and I wouldn't think too much about it.

I'm not really clear on your logic here. What false assumption do you think has been made?

How do you interprete the fact that people who identified "liberal" were testably more accurate at catching the "W" in the cited experiment than those who had identified "conservative"?

normajean777 · 09-13-2007, 10:54 PM

Its more like the classification of the subjects. Anyone could say they are liberal or conservative (to what I understand this survey did). And I don't think there would a major difference between a moderate liberal and a moderate conservative because their views are so close. Its kind of a flip of a coin.

Zooropa · 09-14-2007, 02:00 AM

What about people who have changed sides? I went through a phase where a was conservative for a while a few years ago. Now I consider myself pretty liberal. I don't think the conservative/liberal mindset is absolute.

JerryLove · 09-14-2007, 11:34 AM

Quote:

Its more like the classification of the subjects. Anyone could say they are liberal or conservative (to what I understand this survey did). And I don't think there would a major difference between a moderate liberal and a moderate conservative because their views are so close. Its kind of a flip of a coin.

OK. So replace "conservative" with "people who believe they are conservitive and vote for candidates in the 'conservitive' party" and "liberal" with the appropriate corrilary.

It sounds like the "no true scotsman" argument.

Danny · 09-16-2007, 12:34 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Zooropa

What about people who have changed sides? I went through a phase where a was conservative for a while a few years ago. Now I consider myself pretty liberal. I don't think the conservative/liberal mindset is absolute.

I was wondering this too. Clearly we fit on the "Willing to try new experiences" side of the spectrum.

Personally, I'm not putting a whole lot of weight on the validity of this study until the results have been repeated a few times.