Brain scans can predict your politics

[pecksniff]

Says a study from Ohio State University.

COLUMBUS, Ohio (WCMH) — Signatures in the brain revealed by MRI scans can predict political ideology, according to researchers at Ohio State University.

The study used a six-point scale from very liberal to very conservative. When a supercomputer analyzed 174 fMRI brain scans, the researchers found a relationship between the scan results and the participants’ own declarations of political leanings.

“Can we understand political behavior by looking solely at the brain? The answer is a fairly resounding ‘yes,'” study co-author Skyler Cranmer, an Ohio State political science professor, said in a news release. “The results suggest that the biological and neurological roots of political behavior run much deeper than we previously thought.”

The study, published recently in the journal PNAS Nexus, is the largest to date to use functional MRI scans of the brain to study political ideology, the release said.

The researchers didn’t design the eight tasks done by the participants to get a politically biased response.

“But we found the scans from all eight tasks were related to whether they identified as liberals or conservatives,” said study co-author Seo-Eun Yang, now an assistant professor of political science at Northeastern University, who did the work as a doctoral student at Ohio State.

People who took part in the study had tasks to do. One task examined empathy, another memory, and a third task asked them to press a button quickly to win or lose money.

The empathy task was “significantly associated with moderate ideology,” while the reward task could predict political extremism, “those who said they were very conservative or very liberal,” the news release said.

 

[Dribble]

Duh. Mental illness has always been identifiable. Republicans are mentally sick

 

[pecksniff]

Duh. Mental illness has always been identifiable. Republicans are mentally sick

This is a bit more complicated than that.

 

[Dribble]

This is a bit more complicated than that.

No...you give them too much credit. I accept them as they are.

 

[mayfly13]

Says a study from Ohio State University.
People who took part in the study had tasks to do. One task examined empathy, another memory, and a third task asked them to press a button quickly to win or lose money.

The empathy task was “significantly associated with moderate ideology,” while the reward task could predict political extremism, “those who said they were very conservative or very liberal,” the news release said.

I like how they focused on extremists versus moderates - which makes sense
instead of Left versus Right, which would have been partisan.

 

[pecksniff]

I like how they focused on extremists versus moderates - which makes sense
instead of Left versus Right, which would have been partisan.

I have seen, occasionally, reports of similar studies purporting to detect L or R orientation. But extreme v. moderate is also an important distinction.

Death to all fanatics!

 

[mayfly13]

I have seen, occasionally, reports of similar studies purporting to detect L or R orientation. But extreme v. moderate is also an important distinction.

Death to all fanatics!

yeah, the first time I heard about that was on Steve Paikin's (The Agenda) "Ideology" series.
This guy Jonathan Haidt was claiming that Right-leaning people tend to be more organized. And that while as people age their opinions don't change much, they Do start leaning a bit to the Right.
He made a lot of sense, but at one point even HE pulled a Jordan Peterson and started talking in absolutes.

This study is good because it refers to both, I'll have a better look at it tomorrow.

 

[LupusDei]

Duh. Mental illness has always been identifiable. Republicans are mentally sick

This is a bit more complicated than that.

Indeed. There's interesting nature vs. nurture discussion to be found between biological priors and brain plasticity. Most species on this planet have apparently genetic coded behaviors that manifest without instruction but are selected against by evolutionary pressure. It would be insane to think there's no such element in human nature, even if we tend to be arrogant enough to think we can overcome any with conscious cleverness.