Post by elalacran on Jan 24, 2012 14:59:48 GMT -5
For quite a while it has struck me that there is something fundamentally different between conservatives and liberals.
It's not a matter of opinion, like whether you like the Rangers or the Yankees or prefer the color yellow. It's deeper than that, more pervasive than that. It's a trait that pervades the personality.
I wonder to what extent it is genetic.
Doesn't have to be genetic. Conservatism might be the result of briain injury or psychic trauma. Could be just some non-genetic developmental accident, like homosexuality, if homosexuality is indeed a result of hormones crossing the placental barrier or something like that.
It has been oberved that brain trauma increases religiousness, or example.
A year or two ago a British researcher CAT Scanned about 70 individuals and then correlated brain structure with politics. Conservatives it was concluded had more development of the amygdala, which is involved in territoriality and fight or flight aggression.
Since I saw that, I've bugged my conservative friends about it. "How's your amygdala today?" Or. "Watch it man, your amygdala's swollen today!"
More news out now. Not about brain structure but about measured behavior in a lab study. Take a look. www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/01/23/conservatives-liberals-do_n_1223095.html?ref=science&icid=maing-grid10|htmlws-sb-nb|dl20|sec1_lnk3%26pLid%3D129644
So conservatives tend to dwell on unpleasant things, to perceive the unpleasant in the environment more than liberals. Hmmm.
One thing for sure; there need to be more scientific investigation in this area. I mean, what could be more important than how our politics are determined? Politics determines our future, if we have any.
It's not a matter of opinion, like whether you like the Rangers or the Yankees or prefer the color yellow. It's deeper than that, more pervasive than that. It's a trait that pervades the personality.
I wonder to what extent it is genetic.
Doesn't have to be genetic. Conservatism might be the result of briain injury or psychic trauma. Could be just some non-genetic developmental accident, like homosexuality, if homosexuality is indeed a result of hormones crossing the placental barrier or something like that.
It has been oberved that brain trauma increases religiousness, or example.
A year or two ago a British researcher CAT Scanned about 70 individuals and then correlated brain structure with politics. Conservatives it was concluded had more development of the amygdala, which is involved in territoriality and fight or flight aggression.
Since I saw that, I've bugged my conservative friends about it. "How's your amygdala today?" Or. "Watch it man, your amygdala's swollen today!"
More news out now. Not about brain structure but about measured behavior in a lab study. Take a look. www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/01/23/conservatives-liberals-do_n_1223095.html?ref=science&icid=maing-grid10|htmlws-sb-nb|dl20|sec1_lnk3%26pLid%3D129644
So conservatives tend to dwell on unpleasant things, to perceive the unpleasant in the environment more than liberals. Hmmm.
One thing for sure; there need to be more scientific investigation in this area. I mean, what could be more important than how our politics are determined? Politics determines our future, if we have any.
?? I don't recall that fantasy. True, if I were chained up and forced to listen to Republican speeches, who knows what I'd do when released.