Conservatives terrified.

[Lozzer]

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/scie ... brain.html

Scientists have found that people with conservative views have brains with larger amygdalas, almond shaped areas in the centre of the brain often associated with anxiety and emotions.
On the otherhand, they have a smaller anterior cingulate, an area at the front of the brain associated with courage and looking on the bright side of life.
The "exciting" correlation was found by scientists at University College London who scanned the brains of two members of parliament and a number of students.
They found that the size of the two areas of the brain directly related to the political views of the volunteers.
However as they were all adults it was hard to say whether their brains had been born that way or had developed through experience.

Prof Geraint Rees, who led the research, said: "We were very surprised to find that there was an area of the brain that we could predict political attitude.
"It is very surprising because it does suggest there is something about political attitude that is encoded in our brain structure through our experience or that there is something in our brain structure that determines or results in political attitude."
Prof Rees and his team, who carried out the research for the Today programme on BBC Radio 4, looked at the brain make up of the Labour MP Stephen Pound and Alan Duncan, the Conservative Minister of State for International Development using a scanner.
They also questioned a further 90 students, who had already been scanned for other studies, about their political views.
The results, which will be published next year, back up a study that showed that some people were born with a "Liberal Gene" that makes people more likely to seek out less conventional political views.
The gene, a neurotransmitter in the brain called DRD4, could even be stimulated by the novelty value of radical opinions, claimed the researchers at the University of California

[Feck]

Yes but is there a cure ? are we going to have adverts on TV encouraging us to hug a poor conservative but move slowly so you don't startle them ?

[Lozzer]

Yes but is there a cure ? are we going to have adverts on TV encouraging us to hug a poor conservative but move slowly so you don't startle them ?

Haha, very so! I took a quick read on the article's comments, some are proposing that liberals are intending to purge them from society using this as justification. Then again, we're no better off! Supposedly we have a 'liberal gene', which is apparently key to creating and implementing radical ideas.

[Santa_Claus]

I knew all that PC nonsense about people being the same inside was rubbish.

of course most of the evidence that some are better than others is, errrr.....black and white and staring folk in the face.

[Mallardz]

Yes but is there a cure ? are we going to have adverts on TV encouraging us to hug a poor conservative but move slowly so you don't startle them ?

Like a witch from left for dead?
Except with less screaming and you ripping apart.

[Faithfree]

A bit early for April Fools Day, init?

[Trolldor]

So... liberal-minded individuals are smarter and happier?

lol.

[GreyICE]

I knew all that PC nonsense about people being the same inside was rubbish.

of course most of the evidence that some are better than others is, errrr.....black and white and staring folk in the face.

Ah, that two things are different proves that one of the two is better? Interesting to know.

[FBM]

Can't really distinguish between cause and effect here, I think, but it's interesting nonetheless...

Left wing or right wing? It's written in the brain

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.

Text courtesy of the Wellcome Trust blog

http://www.ucl.ac.uk/news/news-articles/1012/10122301

[maiforpeace]

I saw the same story, only couched a bit differently...it was a little more biting of conservatives.

Study: Conservatives have larger ‘fear center’ in brain

By Daniel Tencer
Tuesday, December 28th, 2010 -- 5:43 pm

Political opinions are considered choices, and in Western democracies the right to choose one's opinions -- freedom of conscience -- is considered sacrosanct.

But recent studies suggest that our brains and genes may be a major determining factor in the views we hold.

A study at University College London in the UK has found that conservatives' brains have larger amygdalas than the brains of liberals. Amygdalas are responsible for fear and other "primitive" emotions. At the same time, conservatives' brains were also found to have a smaller anterior cingulate -- the part of the brain responsible for courage and optimism.

If the study is confirmed, it could give us the first medical explanation for why conservatives tend to be more receptive to threats of terrorism, for example, than liberals. And it may help to explain why conservatives like to plan based on the worst-case scenario, while liberals tend towards rosier outlooks.

"It is very significant because it does suggest there is something about political attitudes that are either encoded in our brain structure through our experience or that our brain structure in some way determines or results in our political attitudes," Geraint Rees, the neurologist who carried out the study, told the media.

Rees, who heads up UCL's Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience, was originally asked half-jokingly to study the differences between liberal and conservative brains for an episode of BBC 4's Today show that was hosted by actor Colin Firth. But, after studying 90 UCL students and two British parliamentarians, the neurologist was shocked to discover a clear correlation between the size of certain brain parts and political views.

He cautions that, because the study was carried out only on adults, there is no way to tell what came first -- the brain differences or the political opinions.

But evidence is beginning to accumulate that figuring out a person's political proclivities may soon be as simple as a brain scan -- or a DNA test.

In a study published in October, researchers at Harvard and UC-San Diego found that a variant of the DRD4 gene predisposes people to being liberal, but only if they had active social lives as adolescents. The "liberal gene" has also been linked to a desire to try new things, and other "personality traits related to political liberalism."

For his part, actor Colin Firth, who hosted the BBC show that revealed the results of the brain scans, has said he wants to see brain scans on politicians to find out if they are telling the truth about what they believe.

Questioning the "liberal" credentials of the head of Britain's Liberal Democratic party, Nick Clegg, Firth said: "I think we should have him scanned."

[Lozzer]

Merge with Conservatives Terrified?

[maiforpeace]

Merge with Conservatives Terrified?

[Ele]

Perhaps having a smaller anterior cingulate in the brain makes a person more inclined to be altruistic and empathetic towards persons outside of their own social group... if so, then not surprising that studies would show correlation with certain political views.

.... now we just need to work out a way to shoot invisible laser beams into the heads of people to shrink their anterior cingulates - there would be peace on earth... mwahahaha!