Brain Differences In Liberals and Conservatives 1248
i_like_spam writes "Scientists from NYU and UCLA report in Nature Neuroscience that the brains of Democrats and Republicans process information differently. This new study finds that the differences are apparent even when the brain processes common information, not just political topics. From the study, liberals were more likely to be accurate and showed more brain activity in the region associated with analyzing conflicts. A researcher not affiliated with the study stated, liberals 'could be expected to more readily accept new social, scientific or religious ideas.' Moreover, 'the results could explain why President Bush demonstrated a single-minded commitment to the Iraq war and why some people perceived Sen. John F. Kerry... as a flip-flopper.'"
This is very good news (Score:5, Funny)
I also hope that when the country has universal health care it will be be possible to abort fetuses with these cognitive disabilities, just like we do for babies with other developmental defects.
No, just kidding. This looks like awful science, just like the 19th Century studies that confirmed the experimenter's prejudices that black people and women were inferior.
Hmm... (Score:5, Funny)
2) Pot smokers are more likely to sit around the house
3) People who sit around the house are more likely to play video games
4) People who play video games are more likely to have better hand-eye coordination
5) ???
6) Profit!
Re:Could age be a factor? (Score:5, Funny)
Not very liberal minded of you (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Could age be a factor? (Score:5, Funny)
imho old persons become conservative just because of decline of cognitive functions due to old age.
No, according to TFA, liberals are faster and more reliable at differentiating between the letter M and the letter W in a timed experiment.
I think we may safely extrapolate, and say that we expect this to be true for all differentiation between objects,
I.e. liberals could tell the difference between:
As for going so far as to say conservatives are slow and stupid. Well, there are many chains to be yanked, but saying that would would be neither fair, nor scientific.
Re:Could age be a factor? (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Just In! (Score:4, Funny)
Simple, you don't exist, now get out of here and stop invalidating the data!
Re:Is "liberal" an evolutionary survival trait? (Score:2, Funny)
Re:Just In! (Score:4, Funny)
Re:liberals (Score:5, Funny)
Political models != religion.
Economic models != religion.
However, OS choice == religion.
Re:Just In! (Score:2, Funny)
Socialism is both self-evidently false and a uniform failure where ever and to what ever it's been applied. This troubles socialists not at all and this research suggests that the reason for preferring a political system that's never worked over one that has a chance of working is part of the structure of the brain.
You're not a liberal/socialist/communist/who-gives-a-shit because you're insightful or compassionate, you're a liberal because your brain is wired in such a way as to find some value in what conservatives see as abject failure.
Comment removed (Score:1, Funny)
Re:Could age be a factor? (Score:5, Funny)
Comment removed (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Just In! (Score:2, Funny)
Re:It's math or mathematics (Score:2, Funny)
So there.
(Serious answer: mathematics is plural, meaning "the mathematical sciences", so should be shortened to maths.)
Re:Not very liberal minded of you (Score:5, Funny)
Dimiss Modern Psychology (Score:3, Funny)
sounds good to me!
Study proves Liberal more responsive to "W" Bush (Score:5, Funny)
In fact, the study almost proves this fact. For both conservatives and liberals their reactions to the letter "M" were nearly identical. Liberals only excelled in targeting the letter "W".
We pretty much already know that Liberals are very good at targeting George "W".
Bah!
***
This is some of the worst science. Thankfully, it's anti-conservative therefore Slashdot will readily post it in it's slide away from a "science" log to a "politics" log.
Re:Not very liberal minded of you (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Could age be a factor? (Score:5, Funny)
He can't, he's a conservative.
Re:Could age be a factor? (Score:3, Funny)
Now try the same with a 60 year old who has a lawyer and a rifle, and knows how to use both.
Re:Could age be a factor? (Score:3, Funny)
Well, I'd have to say that since seeing "W-2004" with a little flag bumper stickers prior to the 2004 election, liberals [note: I'd describe myself as one] have an immediate, visceral, and very negative reaction to the letter 'W'.
Who knew? (Score:2, Funny)
What variables did they not correlate? (Score:2, Funny)
Can we fix it? (Score:3, Funny)
Does that mean we can finally fix the conservatives?
Re:Could age be a factor? (Score:4, Funny)
That's certainly true, which is why dating conservatives is so boring.
Sure! (Score:3, Funny)
There. I've named two.
Out of millions.
Re:Could age be a factor? (Score:3, Funny)
A cop is neither a man nor a woman? What the hell are they? O_o