Liberals are mentally retarded

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TheCatt
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Post by TheCatt »

It's not me, it's someone else.
Leisher
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Post by Leisher »

For the study, Kanai and his colleagues asked 90 young adults to rank their political views on a five-point scale from very liberal to very conservative. Then, the volunteers underwent structural MRI scans, which revealed "substantial differences" in brain structure.


That part bugs me.

First of all, you can't discount people answering "wrong". What I mean is that they don't understand a question or answer differently than they normally would for fear of being judged by the scientists, etc.

Also, how does this study explain people's tendencies to alter their political beliefs during their lifetime? Do those portions of the brain grow, shrink, or fail?
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GORDON
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Post by GORDON »

Differences in brain structure suggest an error, or something that needs to be corrected.

That makes me nervous.
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TheCatt
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Post by TheCatt »

GORDON wrote:Differences in brain structure suggest an error, or something that needs to be corrected.

That makes me nervous.
According to the article, that is how a conservative would react.
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GORDON
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Post by GORDON »

TheCatt wrote:
GORDON wrote:Differences in brain structure suggest an error, or something that needs to be corrected.

That makes me nervous.
According to the article, that is how a conservative would react.
while conservatives are though to be better at recognizing threats,


Indeed.

If there wasn't a glorious history of reeducation camps in the biggest experiment in communism ever conducted on Earth, I wouldn't be recognizing a threat.
"Be bold, and mighty forces will come to your aid."
Malcolm
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Post by Malcolm »

This entire article sounds bullshit-ish.
"Previously, some psychological traits were known to be predictive of an individual's political orientation,"

What studies?

...people who identified themselves as liberals generally had a larger anterior cingulate cortex — a comma-shaped region near the front of the brain that is involved in decision-making. By contrast, those who identified as conservatives had larger amygdalas — almond-shaped structures that are linked with emotional learning and the processing of fear.

1) So what? Without shitloads more detail, those facts are worthless.
2) The sample size was 90. Furthermore, the sample demographic was probably skewed as all hell.

Liberals were more likely than conservatives to follow another person's gaze, suggesting that people who lean right value autonomy more; alternative explanations suggest that liberals might be more empathetic, or that conservatives are less trusting of others.

What the fuck? That could suggest a trillion different things.

Someone's actually funding such useless experiments?
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