Rigging a study to make conservatives look stupid.

Slate ^ | Sept. 14, 2007 | William Saletan

[neverdem]

Are liberals smarter than conservatives?

It looks that way, according to a study published this week in Nature Neuroscience. In a rapid response test—you press a button if you're given one signal, but not if you're given a different signal—the authors found that conservatives were "more likely to make errors of commission," whereas "stronger liberalism was correlated with greater accuracy." They concluded that "a more conservative orientation is related to greater persistence in a habitual response pattern, despite signals that this response pattern should change."

Does this mean liberal brains are fitter? Apparently. "Liberals are more responsive to informational complexity, ambiguity and novelty," the authors wrote. New York University, which helped fund the study, concluded, "Liberals are more likely than are conservatives to respond to cues signaling the need to change habitual responses." The study's lead author, NYU professor David Amodio, told London's Daily Telegraph that "liberals tended to be more sensitive and responsive to information that might conflict with their habitual way of thinking."

[neverdem]

Political scientists and psychologists have noted that, on average, conservatives show more structured and persistent cognitive styles, whereas liberals are more responsive to informational complexity, ambiguity and novelty. We tested the hypothesis that these profiles relate to differences in general neurocognitive functioning using event-related potentials, and found that greater liberalism was associated with stronger conflict-related anterior cingulate activity, suggesting greater neurocognitive sensitivity to cues for altering a habitual response pattern.

That's the abstract which is linked in the second sentence of the article at the source. You can't make this stuff up.

[Brilliant]

If they did the same experiment with blacks and whites, the libs would go bezerk.

[donna]

Summary: Liberals have no attention span.

[Brilliant]

I wonder how they know who’s conservative and who’s liberal?

[Always Right]

conservatives show more structured and persistent cognitive styles, whereas liberals are more responsive to informational complexity, ambiguity and novelty.

So if you are wishy-washy that somehow means you are more intelligent????? What a load of crap.

[bolobaby]

I read this and scoffed.

Liberals continued to be stimulated on a mindless exercise while conservatives tuned out faster.

Give a baby a rattle and it will entertain for hours.

(See? I can make specious claims based on these results, too!)

[Revolting cat!]

Garbage in, garbage out!

[Always Right]

I wonder how they know who’s conservative and who’s liberal?

Liberals were all driving hybrid cars with bumper stickers on the back.

[hophead]

We don’t need no study to show how stupid some of our conservative leaders are do we?

[neverdem]

Read Saletan’s article if you haven’t. Is he Slate’s token conservative? I don’t read Slate much.

[notpoliticallycorewrecked]

So they pitted an 84 year old Republican against a 18 year old college student?

[SWAMPSNIPER]

All I know is that our spelling, punctuation, and grammar beats the norm found at DU!

[FreedomCalls]

I read somewhere else the sample size was seven. That’s not enough people to draw a conclusion from either.

[bolobaby]

Oh my god - if the sample size was seven... well... I’d crap myself over the foolishness of all the libs latching on to an obviously flawed study.

I also like that they used the letter “W”. We all know that libs have a HUGE reaction to that letter nowadays... ;-)

[gridlock]

From today's Wall Street Journal: Most Science Studies Appear To Be Tainted By Sloppy Analysis

This study appears to be a case in point.

[Raycpa]

and found that greater liberalism was associated with stronger conflict-related anterior cingulate activity,

a nice way of saying they are brain damaged?

[Right Wing Assault]

suggesting greater neurocognitive sensitivity to cues for altering a habitual response pattern

Translation: liberals are more "flighty."

[svcw]

If liberals are so smart...why are they liberals?

[thulldud]

Liberals were all driving hybrid cars with bumper stickers on the back.

Put enough bumper stickers on it, and the deputies mightn't notice that your tag has expired.

[RightWhale]

• using event-related potentials

  ERPs are interesting, but they can analyze the CNS all they want and won't discover memory, which is what Conservatives use so they don't have to make so many mistakes and have to alter habits all the time just to survive.