Right or left: Are our political persuasions hard-wired into our brains?
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PARIS: Neurons in the brains of liberals and conservatives fire differently when confronted with tough choices, suggesting that some political divides may be hard-wired, according to a new study.
Some previous studies have established a link between political persuasion and certain personality traits. Those who define themselves as conservatives tend to crave order and structure in their lives, and are more consistent in the way they make decisions, for example. Liberals, by contrast, show a higher tolerance for ambiguity and complexity, and adapt more easily to unexpected circumstances.
Cognitive style
The affinity between political views and "cognitive style" has also been shown to be partly genetic, handed down from parents to children, said the new study, published in the British journal Nature Neuroscience. Intrigued by these correlations, study author and political scientist David Amodio of New York University led a team who tested if the brains of liberals and conservatives react differently to the same stimuli.
A group of 43 right-handed subjects were asked to perform a series of computer tests designed to evaluate their unrehearsed response to cues urging them to break a well-established routine.
"People often drive home from work on the same route, day after day, such that it becomes habitual and doesn't involve much thinking," Amodio explained by way of comparison. "But occasionally there is road work, or perhaps an animal crosses the road, and you need to break out of your habitual response in order to deal with this new information."
Using electroencephalographs, which measure neuronal impulses, the researchers examined activity in a part of the brain – the anterior cingulate cortex – that is strongly linked with the self-regulatory process of conflict monitoring.
The match-up was unmistakable: respondents who had described themselves as liberals or left-wing showed "significantly greater conflict-related neural activity" when the hypothetical situation called for an unscheduled break in routine. Conservatives or right-wingers, however, were less flexible, refusing to deviate from old habits "despite signals that this ... should be changed."
Stubborn or steadfast?
Whether that is good or bad, of course, depends on one's perspective: one could interpret the results to mean that liberals are nimble-minded and conservatives rigid and stubborn. Or one could, with equal justice, conclude that wishy-washy liberals don't stick to their guns, while conservatives and steadfast and loyal.
As to the more intriguing question of which comes first, the patterns in neuron activity or the political orientation, Amodio is reluctant to hazard a guess.
"The neural mechanisms for conflict monitoring are formed early in childhood," and are probably rooted in part in our genetic heritage, he said. "But even if genes may provide a blueprint for more liberal or conservative orientations, they are shaped substantially by one's environment over the course of development," he added.
Obscuring causal links even more is the fact that the brain is malleable and neural functions can change as a result of new experiences.
Aha!
I finally have my answer as to why Texans seem incapable of changing lanes...
Not like Boston...