Oh Those Republican Brains!

Because of the volunteer work I do with prisoners, I am very familiar with how a primitive brain structure, the amygdala, functions in reacting to perceived threats and triggering aggression or flight while shutting down the brain’s rational functions.  Another new British study helps us to understand political behavior, because righties have more developed amygdalas, and lefties have more developed anterior cingulate cortexes, the area of the brain that deals with complex problem solving, such as resolving conflicts.

Liberals and Conservatives may have differences that go well beyond their opinions about what constitutes contempt of Parliament.

A British study suggests there are anatomical differences between the brains of opponents on the left and right of the political spectrum.

The study, published in the online edition of Current Biology, found people who identified themselves as liberal tended to have larger anterior cingulate cortexes, a region of the brain that monitors uncertainty and conflict. Those who identified themselves as conservative had larger amygdalas, a region that processes emotions related to fear.

Researchers say the physical differences reflect the nature of voters: Liberals tend to be more comfortable with uncertainty, conservatives are more sensitive to fear.

“Previously, some psychological traits were known to be predictive of an individual’s political orientation,” said Dr. Ryota Kanai of University College London. “Our study now links such personality traits with specific brain structure.”

Previous work has found political orientation is associated with how people manage uncertainty and fear.

As part of the British study, 90 adults reported their political views on a fivepoint scale from very liberal to very conservative. Then, their brains were scanned and researchers discovered “significant associations” between the volume of grey matter in the regions and an individual’s political bent.

People with a large amygdala are “more sensitive to disgust” and tend to “respond to threatening situations with more aggression than do liberals and are more sensitive to threatening facial expressions,” the study said.

Liberals are linked to larger anterior cingulate cortexes, a region that “monitor(s) uncertainty and conflicts,” it said. “It is conceivable [they] have a higher capacity to tolerate uncertainty and conflicts, allowing them to accept more liberal views.”… [emphasis added]

Inserted from <Vancouver Sun>

Many on the left have trouble understanding how Republicans can happily believe totally absurd positions, such as death panel and the birther conspiracy, and be completely unresponsive to rational proof.  This indicates that the reason is that they don’t do as well with higher rational functions as they do with primitive reactions.  It also indicates that lefties do not perceive threats as readily, so we keep trying to reason with Republicans to our great disadvantage.

It also shows the depravity of Republican leaders and their corporate backers.  They have discovered how to manipulate a significant portion of the population by targeting their reptilian instincts and deceiving them into acting against their own self interest.