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Title: Political leanings and the brain Post by: Ahkenaten on September 09, 2008, 07:42:12 AM I thought this was a really interesting study:
Quote Sept. 10, 2007 -- Liberals and conservatives may handle mental conflict differently, according to new research on the brain. http://www.webmd.com/brain/news/20070910/political-bent-may-show-in-brainThe finding comes from researchers including David Amodio, PhD, a research scientist in New York University's psychology department. They scanned the brains of 43 adults during a conflict test. ... Most of the time, participants saw the letter that was supposed to prompt them to press the computer key. But 20% of the time, they saw the other letter and were supposed to refrain from pushing the computer key. Compared with conservatives, liberals were more likely to refrain from pressing the computer key when the wrong letter appeared. Liberals also showed more activity in a brain area called the anterior cingulate cortex, which is involved in monitoring conflicting information, note Amodio and colleagues. "Although a liberal orientation was associated with better performance on the response-inhibition task examined here, conservatives would presumably perform better on tasks in which a more fixed response style is optimal," write the researchers. What do you think? Is this bunk or is there something to it? Ahk Title: Re: Political leanings and the brain Post by: Gojira on September 09, 2008, 11:06:58 AM A definition of a liberal and conservative would be nice. ;)
Was it based on self-proclamation? Or an issues assessment? I think this runs into dangerous territory of proclaiming that liberals are creative and conservatives are brutes...but then again... ;D Title: Re: Political leanings and the brain Post by: Patton on September 09, 2008, 11:40:22 AM An n of 43?
I'd like to see the statistical power analysis and p values. Most of all...I'd like to see a higher n. "Self described" liberal or conservative? Any controls on that variable? Title: Re: Political leanings and the brain Post by: Ahkenaten on September 09, 2008, 01:20:35 PM Quote Was it based on self-proclamation? Or an issues assessment? I think this runs into dangerous territory of proclaiming that liberals are creative and conservatives are brutes I don't think that's its intention. One could try and make up all sorts of stuff from the data like Democrats are second-guessers. I think the only point of the experiment was to see if there was a pattern at all, in order to help answer whether or not political leanings will show up at all in the brain. A small experiment. Title: Re: Political leanings and the brain Post by: Gojira on September 09, 2008, 01:49:14 PM The statistical significance could also just be a measured coincidence.
Who is not to say that someone with a rigid brain performance grew up in a predominately liberal family and instead have rigid liberal views. Which would explain a lot considering the divisive nature of politics. So yeah, a larger n is needed.
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