Red Brain, Blue Brain: Republicans and Democrats Process Risk Differently, Research Finds

Red Brain, Blue Brain: Republicans and Democrats Process Risk Differently, Research Finds

www.sciencedaily.com

Using this new analysis of 82 people who performed the gambling task, the academics showed that Republicans and Democrats do not differ in the risks they take. However, there were striking differences in the participants' brain activity during the risk-taking task.
Democrats showed significantly greater activity in the left insula, a region associated with social and self-awareness. Meanwhile Republicans showed significantly greater activity in the right amygdala, a region involved in the body's fight-or-flight system. These results suggest that liberals and conservatives engage different c

(visit the link for the full news article)


Related News Links:
smokeandstir.org
2012election.procon.org
healthland.time.com

Related AboveTopSecret.com Discussion Threads:
Conservative or Liberal, gray matter may decide how you vote in November
What am I? Liberal or Conservative? Republican or Democrat?
Are Liberals REALLY More Intelligent Than Conservatives?
Is The Arc Of American History Toward A Conservative Or Liberal Direction?

You could infer from this that the cognitive styles of conversatives diifer from liberals in that self-centered fear motivates the conservative (red) folk while liberals (blue) folk tend to a more society centered approach to decisionmaking.

Dr. Darren Schreiber, a trained lawyer before he turned neuroscientist, holds a theory of mankind not as a toolmaker per se, but that he evolved for political and social ends.

I reference an interview with him in the Additional News Links of the interview - fascinating. Here is a short clip

"A big part of my argument is that, rather than the rational choice model that sees people as individualists calculating their own utility functions, we are all fundamentally social creatures, meaning that I also consider your utility as well as my own and I’d like to increase both if I can because I benefit from the well-being of all of us. This brain that thinks in coalitions also allows us to think in terms of what moral sentiments we’d like to have towards whom, so if I’m trying to figure out if you’re an us or a them I use different neural mechanisms to think about moral calculations. Do I use a sort of what’s described as a deontological Kantian framework that implies I should never ever push you off a bridge if you’re a friend of mine, versus a kind of utilitarian calculation that says I’d sacrifice one person to save twenty five? Depending on whether you’re judged as an us or a them we make different calculations, and use different neural mechanisms in each of these instances. Knowing this helps to unwrap some of the puzzles we’ve seen in human behavior, and gets us a more fundamental understanding of human politics."

Evolutionarily speaking, all this research would support the idea that liberals are at the forefront and conservatives are hold overs from an evolutionary stage that no longer serves humanity as we go into the future.

My experience tends to validate these findings and discussion here on ATS seems to go that way as well. Not in all cases, of course, but on average.





www.sciencedaily.com
(visit the link for the full news article)

reply to post by FyreByrd

You could infer from this that the cognitive styles of conversatives diifer from liberals in that self-centered fear motivates the conservative (red) folk

Which would explain why they love guns so much...they live life in a state of fear.

Originally posted by FyreByrd

Red Brain, Blue Brain: Republicans and Democrats Process Risk Differently, Research Finds

www.sciencedaily.com

Using this new analysis of 82 people who performed the gambling task, the academics showed that Republicans and Democrats do not differ in the risks they take. However, there were striking differences in the participants' brain activity during the risk-taking task.
Democrats showed significantly greater activity in the left insula, a region associated with social and self-awareness. Meanwhile Republicans showed significantly greater activity in the right amygdala, a region involved in the body's fight-or-flight system. These results suggest that liberals and conservatives engage different c

(visit the link for the full news article)


Related News Links:
smokeandstir.org
2012election.procon.org
healthland.time.com

Related AboveTopSecret.com Discussion Threads:
Conservative or Liberal, gray matter may decide how you vote in November,
What am I? Liberal or Conservative? Republican or Democrat?
Are Liberals REALLY More Intelligent Than Conservatives?
Is The Arc Of American History Toward A Conservative Or Liberal Direction?

They are both messed up! Using one side or the other of their brains instead of both!

This is exactly why I am an Independent with some libertarian leanings lol!

Bullcrap. So my politically "independant" brain must be a dark orange.
We need to stop picking sides.

Originally posted by xedocodex
reply to post by FyreByrd

 

You could infer from this that the cognitive styles of conversatives diifer from liberals in that self-centered fear motivates the conservative (red) folk

Which would explain why they love guns so much...they live life in a state of fear.

So, if I own guns that means I'm a republican who is afraid of everything? Interesting, but idiotic assesment. I own guns. I am a libertarian (if I have to choose one). And I'm not afraid of anything. Besides, these kind of posts are realistically just the insane rantings of liberals who are so afraid of conservatives that they need to make these "go get the bad guy republican" posts. Oh the irony. And I know - the republicans do it to.

Please take the blinders off. Democrats and Republicans are the same totalitarian beast nowadays. They say what their "side" wants to hear and then when in office, do the same exact thing as their predecessor i.e. Obama and Bush. Same exact agenda - only Obama is doing it faster because Bush coudn't claim "racism" to his critics and then just push the agenda through anyway.

reply to post by tallcool1

So, if I own guns that means I'm a republican who is afraid of everything? Interesting, but idiotic assesment. I own guns. I am a libertarian (if I have to choose one).

Libertarians are just as much right wing as Republicans.

The point is that you are "conservative"...correct...and I personally believe that what drives a lot of gun owners to buy guns is fear and paranoia.

And this study seems to back that up.

And I'm not afraid of anything.

Then you have your guns for just hunting or recreational shooting?

If not...then yes, you were scared enough of something to go out and buy a gun in response to it.

82 people, Seriously ? When even under 1000 it'd be considered as a non-representative sample, how did they managed to even get their paper printed ?

This is plain bull#.

Considering how many blathering idiots are in the democratic party I think its safe to assume that over half of them are actually conservatives pretending to be liberal then.

Very interesting indeed!

Originally posted by BobbyTarass
82 people, Seriously ? When even under 1000 it'd be considered as a non-representative sample, how did they managed to even get their paper printed ?

This is plain bull#.

Even at stage 1 Stats they teach you about sample sizes and confidence intervals.

82 is plenty to make an inference about if the corelation is strong enough.

Originally posted by Aloysius the Gaul

Originally posted by BobbyTarass
82 people, Seriously ? When even under 1000 it'd be considered as a non-representative sample, how did they managed to even get their paper printed ?

This is plain bull#.

Even at stage 1 Stats they teach you about sample sizes and confidence intervals.

82 is plenty to make an inference about if the corelation is strong enough.

Oh how I like that patronizing tone.

No it's not enough when we're lacking data about the whole process, all we have here is a sample of less than 100 persons and a claim of a 82% confidence interval.

Hell, it'd have to be a least 95% with that kind of sample, this is just not enough.

So they're brain damaged too.Or they can't deal with confrontaions
Where we live in chaos and bring order to it by confronting it.
The only fear I know is failure.Death has been covered,the country can't take us on ,nothing to be afraid of there.

They should expand this to more people, it is a very interesting test. It checks out in people I know, the most creative, social, fun, and limit-breaking people are quite progressive, and the ones who think "something" is out to get them circle the wagons and trend conservative. In music, the old folk artists like Phil Ochs and others all had playful attitudes in life. The most playful conservative I actually enjoy is Pat Buchanan - although Ann Coulter seems to have fun but she (he?) is, I've always believed, a put-on to make money (Coulter and Bill Maher are best buds). Anyway, before I digress, yes, a bigger sample size would be interesting but, I would guess, probably will confirm the conclusion..

So blue brains have a tendency to group think and have a lack of inidividuality.... Makes sense

Apparently that study is bunch of crap we all know who made videos of those righties pushing grandma off a cliff.

which means people process the same way.yet another thread touting the "superiority" of a "liberal brain".

reply to post by xedocodex

Which would explain why they love guns so much...they live life in a state of fear.

So which party is trying to ban those things they are afraid of?

Oh yeah that would be the blue side.

reply to post by xedocodex

The point is that you are "conservative"...correct...and I personally believe that what drives a lot of gun owners to buy guns is fear and paranoia.

The point is that liberals are afraid and paranoid because they want and need to make government make them "feel safe".

That study is bogus.

It's a simple question of do you support the constitution and the ideas that this nation was founded on or do you not. There is no red and blue, left or right, liberal or conservative. The fact is, democrats in large care absolutely nothing for this country or what she was founded on - most would be happy to see the President crowned as King. Issues like race, abortion, gay rights, etc. are more important to Liberals than things like personal liberty and justice.

Does that mean Republicans are perfect? Absolutely not. But given the choice between your average Conservative and your average Liberal? Again, do you support the constitution or are you voting simply on race and/or party?

Originally posted by BobbyTarass

Originally posted by Aloysius the Gaul

Originally posted by BobbyTarass
82 people, Seriously ? When even under 1000 it'd be considered as a non-representative sample, how did they managed to even get their paper printed ?

This is plain bull#.

Even at stage 1 Stats they teach you about sample sizes and confidence intervals.

82 is plenty to make an inference about if the corelation is strong enough.

Oh how I like that patronizing tone.

No it's not enough when we're lacking data about the whole process, all we have here is a sample of less than 100 persons and a claim of a 82% confidence interval.

thanks for confirming that my "patronising tone" was completely appropriate.

there is no claim of a 82% confidence interval - it is a claim of 82.9% accuracy - which is a very strong correlation indeed.

Hell, it'd have to be a least 95% with that kind of sample, this is just not enough.

Perhaps you could review the actual test before making such inaccurate comments - here's a link to the abstract of the test -

Abstract

And the detailed statistical data is here

see if you can find out what the actual "confidence interval" is....

Originally posted by BobbyTarass
82 people, Seriously ? When even under 1000 it'd be considered as a non-representative sample, how did they managed to even get their paper printed ?

This is plain bull#.

edit on 14-2-2013 by BobbyTarass because: (no reason given)

Did you bother to look at any of the other sources listed? Yes the specific research cited was small, but it is corraborated by other studies.

No claims were made that this applies to all people just that brain activity during a game could point to political leaning (not absolutes) 98% of the time.

Simplistic, black and white thinking is also more likely in those of a conversative worldview.