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Big surprise.
Neurological studies show that the brains of progressives and conservatives are wired differently. The brains of progressive thinkers are highly developed in the area of the cortex that processes new information and synthesizes new ideas. Conservative brains are underdeveloped in that region, but highly developed in the area of the lower brain that generates the fight or flight response. They're literally wired to see the world through a filter of vigilance and threat perception. This research goes a long way toward explaining what's happening in this country.
As for the physiological differences, conservatives make more use of the right amygdala, which handles emotional response (particularly fear) and progressives the anterior cingulate gyrus, which processes new information and plays a role in decision-making. Measuring the size and activity of these two areas of the brain can identify whether the subject identifies as conservative or progressive with about 70% accuracy. Interestingly, measuring the brains of a subject's parents can identify the subject with the same degree of accuracy, suggesting that these are to a significant extent inherited tendencies. The 30% variability comes largely by way of the brain's plasticity -- no one's doomed to a life of conservatism or progressivism by their brain physiology, but your predilection for one or the other is to some extent hard wired.
Other details:
1) Negativity bias and credulity. There are numerous studies that show conservatives (particularly social conservatives) are more prone to negative views of the world and other people, and to manipulation through fear. Not that we necessarily needed studies to confirm the obvious.
2) The conservative tendency toward self-certainty. They're more uncomfortable with ambiguity and irresolution, and therefore disinclined to change their mind once it's made up, facts be damned
3) Binary thinking. The default either/or pattern, which disables critical thinking and limits options. To be fair, this is a big problem on the left as well.
4) Intellectual-bashing has been fashionable on the right for quite some time. Being under-educated is a point of pride among some conservatives.
5) Conservatives instinctively seek order through dominance and submission, which can cut through debate and get decisions made efficiently (as compared to progressives' preference for consensus and cooperation, which is messier and more laborious). They're comfortable in authoritarian systems that promise to act in their interest. And once they've pledged their allegiance, they don't readily switch teams.
6) And let's not forget that conservatives have spent four decades and billions of dollars erecting a gigantic "echo chamber" of media, think tanks, lobbyists, academic curricula, policy platforms, interest groups, and published matter that in effect creates an alternate reality in which conservatives can enjoy the convenience and comfort of having their views articulated for them and then constantly reinforced.
No doubt there are other pieces to this puzzle. What's clear is that there must be very powerful forces at work to get conservatives, who are exquisitely attuned to their own self-interest and can be hurtfully dismissive of others, to ignore or deny the threat of climate change (to use the most glaring example) -- an issue in which their position leaves them with everything to lose and nothing to gain.
Here's an interesting article:
https://braindecoder.com/post/politics-neuroscience-1282982492
Check the Scientific American Mind website, also. They had several good articles about this over the last couple of years.
Neurological studies show that the brains of progressives and conservatives are wired differently. The brains of progressive thinkers are highly developed in the area of the cortex that processes new information and synthesizes new ideas. Conservative brains are underdeveloped in that region, but highly developed in the area of the lower brain that generates the fight or flight response. They're literally wired to see the world through a filter of vigilance and threat perception. This research goes a long way toward explaining what's happening in this country.
As for the physiological differences, conservatives make more use of the right amygdala, which handles emotional response (particularly fear) and progressives the anterior cingulate gyrus, which processes new information and plays a role in decision-making. Measuring the size and activity of these two areas of the brain can identify whether the subject identifies as conservative or progressive with about 70% accuracy. Interestingly, measuring the brains of a subject's parents can identify the subject with the same degree of accuracy, suggesting that these are to a significant extent inherited tendencies. The 30% variability comes largely by way of the brain's plasticity -- no one's doomed to a life of conservatism or progressivism by their brain physiology, but your predilection for one or the other is to some extent hard wired.
Other details:
1) Negativity bias and credulity. There are numerous studies that show conservatives (particularly social conservatives) are more prone to negative views of the world and other people, and to manipulation through fear. Not that we necessarily needed studies to confirm the obvious.
2) The conservative tendency toward self-certainty. They're more uncomfortable with ambiguity and irresolution, and therefore disinclined to change their mind once it's made up, facts be damned
3) Binary thinking. The default either/or pattern, which disables critical thinking and limits options. To be fair, this is a big problem on the left as well.
4) Intellectual-bashing has been fashionable on the right for quite some time. Being under-educated is a point of pride among some conservatives.
5) Conservatives instinctively seek order through dominance and submission, which can cut through debate and get decisions made efficiently (as compared to progressives' preference for consensus and cooperation, which is messier and more laborious). They're comfortable in authoritarian systems that promise to act in their interest. And once they've pledged their allegiance, they don't readily switch teams.
6) And let's not forget that conservatives have spent four decades and billions of dollars erecting a gigantic "echo chamber" of media, think tanks, lobbyists, academic curricula, policy platforms, interest groups, and published matter that in effect creates an alternate reality in which conservatives can enjoy the convenience and comfort of having their views articulated for them and then constantly reinforced.
No doubt there are other pieces to this puzzle. What's clear is that there must be very powerful forces at work to get conservatives, who are exquisitely attuned to their own self-interest and can be hurtfully dismissive of others, to ignore or deny the threat of climate change (to use the most glaring example) -- an issue in which their position leaves them with everything to lose and nothing to gain.
Here's an interesting article:
https://braindecoder.com/post/politics-neuroscience-1282982492
Check the Scientific American Mind website, also. They had several good articles about this over the last couple of years.