Posted on 09/19/2008 9:21:48 AM PDT by MtnClimber
A new study argues the choice is tied to DNA, and one camp is scared.
Die-hard liberals and conservatives aren't made; they're born. It's literally in their DNA.
That's the suggestion of a study by a group of researchers who wanted to see if there was a biological basis for people's political attitudes.
They found to their surprise that opinions on such contentious issues as gun control, pacifism and capital punishment are strongly associated with physiological traits that are probably present at birth.
The key is the differing levels of fear that people naturally feel.
"What is revolutionary about this paper is that it shows the path from genes to physiology to behavior," said James H. Fowler, a political-science professor at the University of California, San Diego, who was not involved in the research.
The researchers, whose findings were published today in the journal Science, looked at 46 people — liberals who supported foreign aid, immigration, pacifism and gun control; and conservatives who advocated defense spending, capital punishment, patriotism and the Iraq war.
(Excerpt) Read more at denverpost.com ...
Well goody! Now we can test for the liberalism gene in all fetuses and abort the defective ones that have it. Woohoo!!
/sarc
There might be something to this.
Liberals are unable to spot danger im personal activity or behavior (e.g., anon homosexual sex in bathrooms), make wreckless financial decisions (mortgage mess), can’t tell that Islamists want to kill them, and don’t fear God’s wrath.
Not surprised that they also aren’t bothered by a spider on someone’s eyeball.
“Now we can test for the liberalism gene in all fetuses and abort the defective ones that have it. Woohoo!!”
Assuming it’s hereditary, they’re doing that for us.
I would have interpreted the stronger response of conservatives to mean that they were more ready to take action themselves while the liberals would wait around for someone else to respond.
Liberalism is a learned mental disorder. It is not a virus. It is not genetic. It is indoctrinated into the young and gulible.
the researchers clearly measured something that produced statistically significant results. Conservatives blink their eyes at air puffs more than liberals. To impute some “fear” factor is going too far in the interpretation, though. They will have to do other studies, eeg, mri, PET scans, etc. to construct some kind of physiological map of what else is happening. What other brain areas are linked up? Are they going to find two different types of maps that fit nicely with political differences? Maybe, maybe not. The work should be done.
Moreover, it may well be proven that brains can be trained with biofeedback to be more one type or another. That would flush the DNA theory down the drain. Or even hypnosis. Now there’s a question. Not everyone can be hypnotized. Is it easier to hypnotize liberals or conservatives? Let me think...
No, I give this paper some validity - but it is weak, vague and over-interpreted. A small sample from one town is a very good way to control for confounding factors, but it should be expanded. In a way, this is like the right brain - left brain stuff from years ago. It started out with a simple set of ideas - Left brain dominant = rational, analytical, linguistic, Right brain dominant = intuitive, visual, perceptual...
Later research showed that in larger populations these categories were compromised, but still not lacking in some validity.
Similarly, neural differences between liberal and conservative may have a simple basis, but it will get lost in a greater set of complex neural relationships.
Excellent point. I agree with that.
Conservatives fear stupidity.
What comes first? Do neural differences create the character of thought or does the character of thought influence brain architecture? Studies of the effects of meditation indicates the latter does occur although that doesn’t completely rule out the former.
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