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Permalink Reply by Adriana on April 7, 2011 at 1:32pm

I have access to the paper but it is behind a paywall so I can't post the whole article here. They used 90 volunteers (the "n" is pretty good for this type of studies), mean age 23 yerars old, about 50% males and females. The volunteers rated their political tendencies on a scale of 1 to 5. Brain structures were measured by MRI, and multiple regression analysis was performed on the grey matter volume of the regions of interest (amygdala and anterior cingulate cortex) to see if correlations existed with the liberalism score. They replicated the study on a population of 28 volunteers (21 year old was the mean age) and the correlations withstood.

 

Caveat: I want to emphasize that this DOES NOT mean people are born either conservative or liberal, since neural networks, brain region sizes, etc. are plastic and rhey change according to the environment, experiences, etc. Nevertheless it is a very important finding in my view.

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Permalink Reply by Bill on April 7, 2011 at 3:16pm

So can these brain abnormalities be corrected if individuals learn to become liberal, or are they doomed to be conservative chicken shits for the rest of their lives? :) 

 

But seriously, it shows that it really takes a lot to change someone's orientation. Much of liberal/conservative behaviors seem to become hard-wired over time as this study seems to show. 

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Permalink Reply by Adriana on April 7, 2011 at 3:23pm

LOL, do not call them "abnormalities" or we'll be accused of not being scientific.

 

I don't know at that age, what it would take to change political tendencies; I would love to see a study on how many people change their political orientation over time. I've always been a liberal myself, and personally I do not know too many people who have changed from back in my college days but this is just anecdotal evidence.

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Permalink Reply by Bill on April 7, 2011 at 4:14pm

more anecdotal evidence for resistance to change with age: I'm sure we have all noticed how, if a child learns a language before about 12, they often have little or no accent, but if learned after adolescence, they tend to have a very pronounced accent, which they carry for the rest of their lives, even if they exclusively speak the new language. I'm sure we can change with age, just like we can learn a new language, or a new musical instrument. It is just harder, as we almost certainly have a lot of rewiring to do...

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Permalink Reply by Adriana on April 7, 2011 at 4:18pm

Yes, but language learning may involve completely different areas of the brain. It is also related to learning while if we take this article at face value, this is more about personality traits and life experiences.

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Permalink Reply by Bill on April 7, 2011 at 5:09pm

LOL, we could take this all the way back to the whole nurture vs nature debate :)

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Permalink Reply by Jean Marie on April 9, 2011 at 5:02am

Anecdotal personal story, my sweetie was republican, from entire family of republicans, when i met him.  (hey, forgive me for dating repubs, but, the pickings are slim out here in Indiana!! and he was otherwise a very good man, extremely good person, very moral, very kind) 

but, he is a leftie now!!  Took me a few years, but, it happened.  *I* can not take complete credit, Bush helped!!!!

 so did Daily Show, Realtime, he loves good comedy, so i strted with THAT, see...... as did putting Fox News on child-lockout. 

 

Yes, yes, this blocking Fox News didn't go over well initially.  Yes, yes, we had some passionate discussions on what things are rationally considered to be polluting the atmosphere of our home.

 

I also reset his radio channels in his car, and he really doesn't remember how to do that, if he even noticed he has new radio channels...

 

 Then i advanced him along, slowly, over to Rachel Maddow, etc etc.

he is as left as i am now.  CAN BE DONE!!!  OH, and he was well over 12 years old as i did this to him.  He now even debates/argues his repub pals now...i was so proud first time he did that!!  =))  and they were so shocked, and all gave me dirty looks, heh heh....

I think it is KEY to put Fox News on child-block.

 

 

 

  I also do this in all doctor or dentist offices, pubs, any waiting room at all, i ask for remote to check if my daughter is on the news right now, (or whatever BS story i make up to get remote) i block Fox News on any remote i can get my hands on, (weird, for a technotard, i am very adept with remotes..). 

Ask receptionist if she knows which channel Fox News is on that tv.  (sadly, they always know.) YOu have to know the Fox channel number to block it.

 IT'S ALWAYS UNDER MENU, find it under MENU.

 

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Permalink Reply by Jean Marie on April 9, 2011 at 6:40am

BUT, he was already lifelong atheist when i met him,

 so, maybe he HAD a liberal brain all along, but, not being particularly interested in politics in his busier, child rearing/job/hectic life focused on having fun not on politics so much back then,

 and brainwashed by all those around them, AND fox news,

he was simply a latent liberal...???

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Permalink Reply by Chris on May 9, 2012 at 11:14pm

That's great about blocking FOX!! I'll have to try that. 

You husband may have had the large anterior cingulate cortex and was indoctrinated into conservatism, so you just aligned him with his natural brain structure.

Permalink Reply by Davy on May 11, 2012 at 4:31pm

Your personality determines the way you consider others in community and what you learn besides your personal life experiences both do effect the way you think politically.

I tend to have a socialist outlook politically and have a tendency to think about political systems and seek a best fit political system taking in consideration human psychology.

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Permalink Reply by Chris on May 9, 2012 at 11:41pm

The full Political Orientations Are Correlated with Brain Structure in Young Adults report opened here. I'm able to open and read all the tabs on your link for some reason. The full report is under the PDF icon in the upper right corner of the page. Are others able to open these too? What's going on with the pay wall?

It would be nice to have a group for discussions about differences between Liberals and Conservatives. There are numerous discussions about this spread all over the place.

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Permalink Reply by Adriana on May 10, 2012 at 9:28am

Yes, this is the paper.

You may be interested in this, too.

Live Chat: The Political Brain

by David Malakoff on 9 May 2012, 9:22 AM | 

See below for the chat box. Join us each Thursday at 3 p.m. EDT for a live conversation with leading scientists and expert reporters.

TODAY'S TOPIC

Gay marriage. Climate change. Stem cell research. Those are just a few of the issues that often spark disagreement between self-identified liberals and conservatives in the United States. But is this just a matter of differing ideologies—or different psychological makeups? In a provocative new book, The Republican Brain, author Chris Mooney argues that social and psychological science suggest that political identities reflect underlying personality traits and psychological needs. For example, while conservatives typically desire certainty, liberals often seek novelty.

But can psychology really explain the shifting sands of political perspective? Or why some people accept scientific explanations for climate change or evolution—and others don’t?

Join us for a different kind of “political science” discussion with Mooney and Gordon Gauchat, a sociologist at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, who studies public perceptions of science and has tested some of Mooney’s ideas.

Our live chat starts at 3 p.m. EDT on Thursday, 10 May, on this page. You can leave your questions in the comment box below before the chat starts. The full text of the chat will be archived on this page.

Save to my calendar

ADDITIONAL READING:

• The Republican Brain: The Science of Why They Deny Science--and Reality (Excerpt)
• Politicization of Science in the Public Sphere: (PDF)

 

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