From the 'Who Knew?' files: Political thought not rational

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-- From the 'Who Knew?' files: Political thought not rational

Posted by Fir3start3r on Jan-31-2006 00:06:

From the 'Who Knew?' files: Political thought not rational

...of course, I'm being facetious...

quote:

Political thought not rational
Scans find subject fires brain's emotional centers in both liberals and conservatives
By Benedict Carey
The New York Times
January 29, 2006

Liberals and conservatives can become equally bug-eyed and irrational when talking politics, especially when they are on the defensive.
Using MRI scanners, neuroscientists now have tracked what happens in the politically partisan brain when it tries to digest damning facts about favored candidates or criticisms of them.
The process is almost entirely emotional and unconscious, the researchers report, and there are flares of activity in the brain's pleasure centers when unwelcome information is being rejected.
"Everything we know about cognition suggests that, when faced with a contradiction, we use the rational regions of our brain to think about it, but that was not the case here," said Dr. Drew Westen, a psychologist at Emory and lead author of the study, which is being presented this weekend at meetings of the Society for Personality and Social Psychology in Palm Springs, Calif.
The results are the latest from brain-imaging studies that provide a neural explanation for internal states, like infatuation or ambivalence, and a graphic trace of the brain's activity.
In 2004, the researchers recruited 30 adult men who described themselves as committed Republicans or Democrats. The men, half of them supporters of President Bush and the other half backers of Sen. John Kerry, earned $50 to sit in an MRI machine and consider several statements in quick succession.
The first was a quote attributed to one of the two candidates: either a remark by Bush in support of Kenneth Lay, the former Enron chief, before he was indicted, or a statement by Kerry that Social Security should be overhauled.
Moments later, the participants read a remark that showed the candidate reversing his position. The quotes were doctored for maximum effect but presented as factual.
The Republicans in the study judged Kerry as harshly as the Democrats judged Bush. But each group let its own candidate off the hook.
After the participants read the contradictory comment, the researchers measured increased activity in several areas of the brain. They included a region involved in regulating negative emotions and another called the cingulate, which activates when the brain makes judgments about forgiveness, among other things.
Also, a spike appeared in several areas known to be active when people feel relieved or rewarded. The "cold reasoning" regions of the cortex were relatively quiet.
Researchers long have known that political decisions are strongly influenced by unconscious emotional reactions, a fact routinely exploited by campaign consultants and advertisers. But the new research suggests that for partisans, political thinking is often predominantly emotional.
It is possible to override these biases, Westen said, "but you have to engage in ruthless self-reflection, to say, 'All right, I know what I want to believe, but I have to be honest.' "

Boy...do we all need to learn that last line...