Conquer Club

If you listen to Radio 4's Today Programme on any given day, you'll inevitably hear a spectrum of politic views from socialist through liberal to conservative. You may find yourself agreeing with the interviewee or irked by their politics depending on your own political persuasion.

Liberals and conservatives may find themselves disagreeing on issues as wide-ranging as the future of the NHS, the UK's involvement in Afghanistan and whether students should pay tuition fees at university, but could these differences be a result of different brain structures? New research commissioned by the Today Programme and led by Wellcome Trust Senior Research Fellow Professor Geraint Rees suggests that this may be so.

Using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scanners, Professor Rees and his colleague Dr Ryota Kanai at the Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience, UCL (University College London) analysed the brain structures of ninety young adults who had reported their political attitudes on a scale from 'very conservative' to 'very liberal'. They found a strong correlation between an individual's view and the structure of the brain, particularly two regions.

People with liberal views tended to have increased grey matter in the anterior cingulated cortex, a region of the brain linked to decision-making, in particular when conflicting information is being presented. Previous research showed that electrical potentials recorded from this region during a task that involves responding to conflicting information were bigger in people who were more liberal or left wing than people who were more conservative.

Conservatives, meanwhile, found increased grey matter in the amygdala, an area of the brain associated with processing emotion. This difference is consistent with studies which show that people who consider themselves to be conservative respond to threatening situations with more aggression than do liberals and are more sensitive to threatening facial expressions.

Taken together, the findings suggest that, at least to some extent, political persuasions are encoded in the structure of the brain. However, given that the structure of even the adult brain can be altered with training, it is not clear whether these differences would affect a person's political choice or vice versa.

As part of the package broadcast on the Today Programme, the researchers also examined the brain structures of two MPs – Conservative MP Alan Duncan and Labour MP Steve Pound. Reassuringly, perhaps, the results tallied with the findings of their study.

Army of GOD wrote:I'm trying to understand what "good at emotions" mean. That doesn't make any sense whatsoever.

Phatscotty wrote:

Army of GOD wrote:I'm trying to understand what "good at emotions" mean. That doesn't make any sense whatsoever.

It was written by a rational Leftist though. Truth is, you are irrational. wait, no, cuz you are rational right?

What a quandary!

Iliad wrote:

Phatscotty wrote:

Army of GOD wrote:I'm trying to understand what "good at emotions" mean. That doesn't make any sense whatsoever.

It was written by a rational Leftist though. Truth is, you are irrational. wait, no, cuz you are rational right?

What a quandary!

And you clearly disproved the study with a rational response, like reading the article and what it meant by "good at emotions" instead of reacting in a kneejerk emotional response.

Phatscotty wrote:

Iliad wrote:And you clearly disproved the study with a rational response, like reading the article and what it meant by "good at emotions" instead of reacting in a kneejerk emotional response.

oh, sorry, I thought I was having fun with it.

excuseeeee ME!

Phatscotty wrote:I will buy that conservatives are good at controlling their emotions.

MeDeFe wrote:

Phatscotty wrote:I will buy that conservatives are good at controlling their emotions.

Like Glenn Beck as opposed Barack Obama? Not that the latter is much of a leftist and may hardly even qualify as liberal, but meh.

thegreekdog wrote:

MeDeFe wrote:

Phatscotty wrote:I will buy that conservatives are good at controlling their emotions.

Like Glenn Beck as opposed Barack Obama? Not that the latter is much of a leftist and may hardly even qualify as liberal, but meh.

Ah, but is Glenn Beck letting his emotions get to him or is he controlling his emotions? Is he purposefully crying on air to obtain more notoriety and viewers or is he just getting emotional?

john9blue wrote:the "psychiatric roleplay" approach to insults? how very prowler of you.

MeDeFe wrote:

thegreekdog wrote:

MeDeFe wrote:

Phatscotty wrote:I will buy that conservatives are good at controlling their emotions.

Like Glenn Beck as opposed Barack Obama? Not that the latter is much of a leftist and may hardly even qualify as liberal, but meh.

Ah, but is Glenn Beck letting his emotions get to him or is he controlling his emotions? Is he purposefully crying on air to obtain more notoriety and viewers or is he just getting emotional?

It doesn't matter which it is. His amygdala is involved in either case, and far more strongly so than his anterior cingulated cortex.

thegreekdog wrote:

MeDeFe wrote:

thegreekdog wrote:

MeDeFe wrote:

Phatscotty wrote:I will buy that conservatives are good at controlling their emotions.

Like Glenn Beck as opposed Barack Obama? Not that the latter is much of a leftist and may hardly even qualify as liberal, but meh.

Ah, but is Glenn Beck letting his emotions get to him or is he controlling his emotions? Is he purposefully crying on air to obtain more notoriety and viewers or is he just getting emotional?

It doesn't matter which it is. His amygdala is involved in either case, and far more strongly so than his anterior cingulated cortex.

I'll defer because I have no biology skills. But if Glenn Beck is purposefully changing his emotions to obtain more viewers/attention, would this not be controlled by the rational parts of his brain?

MeDeFe wrote:In all likelihood yes, but there doesn't seem to be any conflicting information for him to sort out in this case, which is what leftists and liberals supposedly tend to be better at than conservatives according to the study.

DangerBoy wrote:

Phatscotty wrote:

Iliad wrote:And you clearly disproved the study with a rational response, like reading the article and what it meant by "good at emotions" instead of reacting in a kneejerk emotional response.

oh, sorry, I thought I was having fun with it.

excuseeeee ME!

Which proves that Iliad is a liberal and you are a conservative because ------ It's been shown that conservatives enjoy all types of humor more than liberals.

Best paragraph:

“Conservatives tend to be happier than liberals in general,” said Dr. Martin, a psychologist at the University of Western Ontario. “A conservative outlook rationalizes social inequality, accepting the world as it is, and making it less of a threat to one’s well-being, whereas a liberal outlook leads to dissatisfaction with the world as it is, and a sense that things need to change before one can be really happy.”

thegreekdog wrote:

MeDeFe wrote:In all likelihood yes, but there doesn't seem to be any conflicting information for him to sort out in this case, which is what leftists and liberals supposedly tend to be better at than conservatives according to the study.

Unless the conflict was "staying non-emotional and retaining a smaller viewership" vs. "becoming emotional and growing the viewership." The former is a little more nefarious than the latter.

MeDeFe wrote:

thegreekdog wrote:

MeDeFe wrote:In all likelihood yes, but there doesn't seem to be any conflicting information for him to sort out in this case, which is what leftists and liberals supposedly tend to be better at than conservatives according to the study.

Unless the conflict was "staying non-emotional and retaining a smaller viewership" vs. "becoming emotional and growing the viewership." The former is a little more nefarious than the latter.

I don't see much of a conflict in this, it looks like a fairly standard (IF A then B) AND (IF ~A then ~B).

I think "conflicting information" means that two or more sources contradict each other (at least partly), but provide solid reasoning for the information they provide and you're left to figure out why there is a contradiction and try to solve it.

MeDeFe wrote:

Phatscotty wrote:I will buy that conservatives are good at controlling their emotions.

Like Glenn Beck as opposed Barack Obama? Not that the latter is much of a leftist and may hardly even qualify as liberal, but meh.

MeDeFe wrote:

thegreekdog wrote:

MeDeFe wrote:

Phatscotty wrote:I will buy that conservatives are good at controlling their emotions.

Like Glenn Beck as opposed Barack Obama? Not that the latter is much of a leftist and may hardly even qualify as liberal, but meh.

Ah, but is Glenn Beck letting his emotions get to him or is he controlling his emotions? Is he purposefully crying on air to obtain more notoriety and viewers or is he just getting emotional?

It doesn't matter which it is. His amygdala is involved in either case, and far more strongly so than his anterior cingulated cortex.