Ever read a righty blog or watch FOX News and wonder if these folks are brain damaged? Well, apparently...
The differences between liberals and conservatives may run deeper than how they feel about welfare reform or the progress of the Iraq war: Researchers reported Sunday that their brains may actually work differently.
In a study likely to raise the hackles of some conservatives, scientists at New York University and the University of California, Los Angeles, found that a specific region of the brain’s cortex is more sensitive in people who consider themselves liberals than in self-declared conservatives.
The brain region in question helps people shift gears when their usual response would be inappropriate, supporting the notion that liberals are more flexible in their thinking.
"Say you drive home from work the same way every day, but one day there’s a detour and you need to override your autopilot," said NYU psychologist David Amodio. "Most people function just fine. But there’s a little variability in how sensitive people are to the cue that they need to change their current course."
The work, to be reported today in the journal Nature Neuroscience, grew out of decades of previous research suggesting that political orientation is linked to certain personality traits or styles of thinking. A review of that research published in 2003 found that conservatives tend to be more rigid and closed-minded, less tolerant of ambiguity and less open to new experiences. Some of the traits associated with conservatives in that review were decidedly unflattering, including fear, aggression and tolerance of inequality.
For years I have ridiculed the far right, and... well... I apologize. It was at the very least insensitive if not downright hurtful, and certainly inappropriate of me to make fun of people who suffer from organic brain disorders like conservatism. And so I’d like to shift gears and ask your help in making amends.
In the same way that medical terminology has progressed over the past century -- for example moving from "imbecile" to "mentally retarded" to "developmentally disabled" -- it is time to drop the pejorative and stigmatized word "conservative" in favor of a term that recognizes both the medical nature of the disease, as well as the love and joy that even "conservatives" can sometimes bring into our lives, despite their crippling disability. Please vote in the following poll, or add your own suggestions in the comment thread.
[Read more from David Goldstein at HorsesAss.org]