xoxoxoBruce • Oct 18, 2015 1:06 pm
Pro vs Con website has a list of 16 peer reviewed studies supposedly showing liberals and conservatives physiologically different.
The list titles are:
1. People right-of-center politically spend more time looking at unpleasant images, and people left-of-center politically spend more time looking at pleasant images.
2. Reliance on quick, efficient, and "low effort" thought processes yields conservative ideologies, while effortful and deliberate reasoning yields liberal ideologies.
3. People who react strongly to disgusting images, such as a picture of someone eating worms, are more likely to self-identify as conservative.
4. Liberals have more tolerance to uncertainty (bigger anterior cingulate cortex), and conservatives have more sensitivity to fear (bigger right amygdala).
5. Conservatives have stronger motivations than liberals to preserve purity and cleanliness.
6. Liberals are more likely than conservatives to shift their attention in the direction of another person's gaze.
7. Republicans are more likely than Democrats to interpret faces as threatening and expressing dominant emotions, while Democrats show greater emotional distress and lower life satisfaction.
8. Conservatives and liberals react similarly to positive incentives, but conservatives have greater sensitivity to negative stimuli.
9. Conservatives have more activity in their dorsolateral prefrontal cortices, the part of the brain that activates for complex social evaluations.
10. Conservatism is focused on preventing negative outcomes, while liberalism is focused on advancing positive outcomes.
11. Genetics influence political attitudes during early adulthood and beyond.
12. Conservatives learn better from negative stimuli than from positive stimuli and are more risk avoidant than liberals.
13. Individual political attitudes correlate with physiological traits, such as sensitivity to sudden noises and threatening visual images.
14. Liberals are more open-minded and creative whereas conservatives are more orderly and better organized.
15. When faced with a conflict, liberals are more likely than conservatives to alter their habitual response when cues indicate it is necessary.
16. Conservatives sleep more soundly and have more mundane dreams, while liberals sleep more restlessly and have a more bizarre, active dream life.
In the 16 peer-reviewed scientific studies summarized below, researchers found that liberals and conservatives have different brain structures, different physiological responses to stimuli, and activate different neural mechanisms when confronted with similar situations. Each entry below cites the source document. The studies are arranged from most recent to oldest. We included all the peer-reviewed studies on this subject that we could find. If you know about others, please contact us with details.
The list titles are:
1. People right-of-center politically spend more time looking at unpleasant images, and people left-of-center politically spend more time looking at pleasant images.
2. Reliance on quick, efficient, and "low effort" thought processes yields conservative ideologies, while effortful and deliberate reasoning yields liberal ideologies.
3. People who react strongly to disgusting images, such as a picture of someone eating worms, are more likely to self-identify as conservative.
4. Liberals have more tolerance to uncertainty (bigger anterior cingulate cortex), and conservatives have more sensitivity to fear (bigger right amygdala).
5. Conservatives have stronger motivations than liberals to preserve purity and cleanliness.
6. Liberals are more likely than conservatives to shift their attention in the direction of another person's gaze.
7. Republicans are more likely than Democrats to interpret faces as threatening and expressing dominant emotions, while Democrats show greater emotional distress and lower life satisfaction.
8. Conservatives and liberals react similarly to positive incentives, but conservatives have greater sensitivity to negative stimuli.
9. Conservatives have more activity in their dorsolateral prefrontal cortices, the part of the brain that activates for complex social evaluations.
10. Conservatism is focused on preventing negative outcomes, while liberalism is focused on advancing positive outcomes.
11. Genetics influence political attitudes during early adulthood and beyond.
12. Conservatives learn better from negative stimuli than from positive stimuli and are more risk avoidant than liberals.
13. Individual political attitudes correlate with physiological traits, such as sensitivity to sudden noises and threatening visual images.
14. Liberals are more open-minded and creative whereas conservatives are more orderly and better organized.
15. When faced with a conflict, liberals are more likely than conservatives to alter their habitual response when cues indicate it is necessary.
16. Conservatives sleep more soundly and have more mundane dreams, while liberals sleep more restlessly and have a more bizarre, active dream life.