A few years back, a study suggested that conservatives have larger amygdalae than liberals. The amygdala is involved in fear responses, suggesting that conservatives suffer from anxiety more than liberals do (they are also "carriers" of anxiety).
With the rise of Donald Trump as the new GOP standard bearer, I am starting to believe that conservatives have different brain chemistry as well, with their primary neurotransmitter being dope-and-mean.
Housekeeping note: I composed this post on my phone, and it's acting up when I'm trying to embed one last link... please pretend that I linked to an article about dopamine until I can edit this baby.
a study suggested that conservatives have larger amygdalae than liberals.
ReplyDeleteIt was a crap study, though, performed largely in an attempt to discredit the who genre of fMRI junk-science. No, I made that bit up, but it was a publicity stunt that the researchers themselves did not take very seriously. They measured activity in umpteen different parts of the brain, knowing that some of them at least were bound to differ between conservatives and liberals. That's why we have multiple-comparison corrections, to avoid that kind of fishing expedition.
Nevertheless, a few evo-psych types took it seriously.
Damn 'phones are such a tease. They just make life worse.
ReplyDeleteI needed a setup for the pun, old chum, even though it is a bit sketchy.
ReplyDeleteI dunno, the phone is pretty convenient, though it sometimes annoys. Hey, I can watch porn on the thing.
the old bloggerhood had a Zardoz fit on the Tweeter Machine the past few days, and the constant notifications on phone and watch were completely annoying. I mean, SOME of us still have blogs to be annoying on...
ReplyDeleteSome of us even blog on them!
ReplyDeleteHRC is using Red Scare quite a lot in her campaign. Which makes her neocon endorsements unsurprising.
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