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AFP: Brain structure differs in liberals, conservatives: study

If I had a dollar for every time I've seen or heard of a study that shows that either liberals are smarter than conservatives, conservatives are smarter than liberals, or that the brain structure of one side is different than the brain structure of the other, I could retire.
 
I thought the anterior cingulate cortex was associated with experiencing pain, not with “understanding complexity.” "Understanding complexity" is your freakin' prefrontal cortex.

I’d totally believe that conservatives exercise the “fear” portion of their brain more often, and that liberals exercise the “experiencing (empathic) pain” portion of their brain.
 
2 possible answers to that,

One, your brain changes as it learns new information or two, your brain was already wired to accept your changed views, it's just the other methods (maybe conditioning) overrides your acceptance of the view.
You forgot the option where the study is crap
 

So - what of the people who identify with a party eventhough it doesn't resemble their actual political views? And I've met many of passionate and quite angry and fearful liberals. Their study is too small - but reading the actual research notes from the source would be interesting.

The brain is really quite fascinating - almost everything we adhere to in life, and even find funny, has to do with uncontrolled synapses and the developed (or underdevelopment) quandrants of the brain itself. What we find funny is determined by what information reaches the medical prefrontal ventral cortex, for example.

It's really rather depressing (here I am engaging my sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous systems) to think that we are in less control of ourselves as we think - seeing as how more and more bits and pieces of what makes us "ourselves" aren't actually an issue of free-will at all but more so genetics and prenatal development.

Let's suppose that for those like me who can't always decide what side we identify with actually engage both equally, then? (If the findings are accurate). That makes sense to me, then. Last night I was listening to the different debates on Cspan over the temporary budget measure and I agreed equally with everyone. LOL
 
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What about people who change views through the course of their lifetime?

could than have anything to do with the dictum that a young man who is conservative has no heart while an old man who is a liberal has no head

... the brain does not cease to mature until the early 20s in those relevant parts that govern impulsivity, judgment, planning for the future, foresight of consequences, and other characteristics that make people morally culpable ...
Ruben C. Gur, Brain Maturation and the Execution of Juveniles, THE PENN. GAZETTE, January/February 2005.

that would seem to indicate that we become more conservative - engage in less risk taking - once our brain is fully matured, accounting for the greater fearfulness found in conservatives
 
So why is it liberals can"t do the most mundane of things, such as pay their bills, keep a job, or practice decent hygiene.
 
So why is it liberals can"t do the most mundane of things, such as pay their bills, keep a job, or practice decent hygiene.

lol.

The partisanship is strong with you i see.
 
That's because we're full of fear.

And that didn't make a scrap of sense.

The NFL is one of the most violent leagues in the world. Those men sure don't show much fear when out on the field. Must all be liberals.
 
So why is it liberals can"t do the most mundane of things, such as pay their bills, keep a job, or practice decent hygiene.

Hunter/gatherers have no need for such habits?
 
It's just a correlations between differing brain structures and political lean across alot of people, doesnt mean much of anything. Still fun to think about though.
 
You forgot the option where the study is crap

That's true to.
One thing I noticed was that the people they measured, were younger adults, which have been shown to not have complete brain structuring until around 25 years old.

If that's the case, the fear portions of the brain not completely developed would make sense, as young people are commonly known for their lack of inhibition.
 
So why is it liberals can"t do the most mundane of things, such as pay their bills, keep a job, or practice decent hygiene.

For the same reason that conservatives can't do complex tasks like eat with silverware, not pee on the floor, talk without drooling, or walk and chew gum at the same time.

Wanna go the hyperpartisan route? How about actually saying something pertinent to the thread instead.
 
So why is it liberals can"t do the most mundane of things, such as pay their bills, keep a job, or practice decent hygiene.

I dunno. Why can't tea partiers spell?
 
That's true to.
One thing I noticed was that the people they measured, were younger adults, which have been shown to not have complete brain structuring until around 25 years old.

If that's the case, the fear portions of the brain not completely developed would make sense, as young people are commonly known for their lack of inhibition.

I think there was also an element of large numbers of social connections or something as well.

In kicking the idea of some genetic phenomenon at play around with friends quite a bit over the years we came to some similar but decidedly different conclusions than the study above.

We noted that while many conservative positions appear to be based on fear, on further consideration we decided it was more a powerful "rally round the flag, the huns are coming" response.

This fits our overall conclusion, that the difference in life approaches is evolutionary/genetic.

The "risk taking" element fits too. Mastadons are HUGE. Potatoes....not so much.

Its actually kind of amazing how well this model fits. How plausible it seems when various factors are run through it.

And its perfectly scientifically possible.

Hunter-gatherer and agricultural-pastoral lifestyles would select for different traits/behaviors.

12,000 years is plenty of time to do it.

When you consider history, most of the time there have been three basic groups that breed pretty much inclusively:

Aristocracies

Peasantries

Frontier/explorer types

This would tend to imply that there are possibly THREE subspecies.

Or two with an additional subset.

Tons of fun brain exercise down this rabbit hole!:2wave:
 
And that didn't make a scrap of sense.

The NFL is one of the most violent leagues in the world. Those men sure don't show much fear when out on the field. Must all be liberals.
Check your sarcasmeter.
 
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