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Study finds left-wing brain, right-wing brain
LA Times ^ | September 10, 2007 | Denise Gellene

Posted on 09/11/2007 9:18:41 AM PDT by DarkSavant

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To: DarkSavant

Here’s a simple test to determine if you’re a liberal:

If a terrorist killed a member of you’re family, you would:

1. Ask, “Why do they hate us?”

2. Blame Bush.

3. Give him a hug.

4. Demand immediate withdrawal from Iraq.

5. All of the above.

6. Look for the nearest blunt instrument.


41 posted on 09/11/2007 10:03:15 AM PDT by popdonnelly (Our first responsibility is to keep the power of the Presidency out of the hands of the Clintons.)
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To: applpie
Good point! Setting aside the obviously slanted verbiage used in the news articles, the age and demographic attributes of the test subjects do not seem to have been taken into account.

While I was working at Napa State (California) Hospital, an institution housing thousands of criminally insane people, I met a doctor who was conducting experiments dealing with the attributes of the criminal mind.

During his experiments, he learned that children post-puberty through early adulthood are clinically "crazy". The hormone infusion brought on with puberty changes the brain and causes what could be called anything from aberrant behavior to "craziness" in this segment of the population.

Well, every parent knows this and struggles to keep teenagers under control, but this was the first time science demonstrated this fact.

To exclusively use college age test subjects taints the whole study (IMHO). The results of a new test using a broad spectrum of the population might result in the same outcome, but until it is done, the results should be viewed with some skepticism.

42 posted on 09/11/2007 10:04:37 AM PDT by oneolcop (Take off the gloves!)
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To: DarkSavant
liberals tolerate ambiguity and conflict better than conservatives because of how their brains work.

This would explain why liberals are morally ambiguous... Without a double standard, they would have no standards at all.

As far as tolerating conflict, I believe it... because liberals are in constant inner turmoil. They are sometimes able to discern what is factually or morally correct, but are generally unable or unwilling to act upon it. Psychologists refer to this quality as "cognitive dissonance". Cognitive dissonance is a psychological term describing the uncomfortable tension that may result from having two conflicting thoughts at the same time, or from engaging in behavior that conflicts with one’s beliefs, or from experiencing apparently conflicting phenomena.

In simple terms, it is the filtering of information that conflicts with what you already believe, in an effort to ignore that information and reinforce your beliefs. This is the hallmark of liberalism.
43 posted on 09/11/2007 10:08:18 AM PDT by snowrip (Liberal? YOU ARE A SOCIALIST WITH NO RATIONAL ARGUMENT.)
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To: DarkSavant

This was a 2003 study that is being trotted out again all over the internet. It’s a concerted PR effort.

http://freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1893626/posts


44 posted on 09/11/2007 10:32:45 AM PDT by Lorianne
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To: indylindy

The left wing has no brain,
***which is why this study is bogus


45 posted on 09/11/2007 10:35:57 AM PDT by Kevmo (We should withdraw from Iraq — via Tehran. And Duncan Hunter is just the man to get that job done.)
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To: Matchett-PI

Rolling on the floor here!


46 posted on 09/11/2007 10:46:02 AM PDT by badbass
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To: DarkSavant

Left wing brain = chicken wing.


47 posted on 09/11/2007 10:49:14 AM PDT by Doctor Raoul
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To: popdonnelly
“...liberals tolerate ambiguity and conflict better”

The medical term is "clueless".

48 posted on 09/11/2007 10:51:12 AM PDT by Doctor Raoul
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To: craig_eddy
Gee, sounds like they're saying Conservatives have a disorder.

Remember the Soviet's use of psychiatric hospitals as prisons against dissidents...Comrade Hillary wants to talk to you.

49 posted on 09/11/2007 10:54:15 AM PDT by Doctor Raoul
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To: Matchett-PI

Heck if Jessica Alba is in it then I’ll watch it!


50 posted on 09/11/2007 11:18:00 AM PDT by Married with Children
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To: DarkSavant; All

Liberals do not “tolerate” ambiguity better. “Tolerate” is the subjective term that the political (politicized) “scientists” use to describe their results.

Liberals are immature (less developed) in the thinking process of critical analysis, and thus the end product of their attempt to analyze things produces an ambiguous result. Of course they “tolerate” it, its the result they have, they have to live with it.

This (the set of critical analysis skills) is not “hard wired” (actually completion of being developed) in the brain until about age 25. Before that time, the successful indoctrination (resisted by conservatives) of liberal education has already halted the development of critical analytic skills. Liberal education does not teach “how to think” it preaches “what to think” and rewards those who “get it”.

The liberal mind is an immature mind and must “tolerate” its own ambiguity (inability to come to critical conclusions). Which is only natural because it is natural to want to not be at war with yourself.

It takes a liberal who has not completely lost the ability to perform critical analysis, like a David Horowitz, to allow facts to suggest his mental template (moral and intellectual ambiguity) is in error, to look for that error, and become a critical thinking conservative (as David did).


51 posted on 09/11/2007 11:26:33 AM PDT by Wuli
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To: DarkSavant
They were instructed to tap a keyboard when an M appeared on a computer monitor and to refrain from tapping when they saw a W.

Doesn't this just prove liberals play more video games?

Of course the categories of liberal and conservative say nothing. Politics can't be reduced to a two-dimensional continuum.

The only study I have seen that is anywhere near interesting is one that looks at what virtues liberals think are key, versus what conservatives think is key. "Liberals" think mainly in terms of fairness/inequality and care/harm. In addition to these, "conservatives" also think in terms of purity/disgust, loyalty/disloyalty, and authority/disobedience. The conservative ethos is more nuanced, and apparently more naturally occurring. The liberal ethos appears only in high-population, highly diverse settings where religions are multitudinous and capitalist concerns reduce ethics to what is most effective for business. See more.

52 posted on 09/11/2007 11:44:53 AM PDT by Dumb_Ox (http://kevinjjones.blogspot.com)
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To: Jedi Master Pikachu

Young people,especially those from wealthy backgrounds,tend to be Left wing because they have been so sheltered from the ugly brutish reality of life.They wonder why all the poor people can’t live in luxury like they do.
Nearly all the New Left folks from the Sixties were like that.Even many of the black militants came from middle class backgrounds.There is a lot of guilt that permeated these groups.


53 posted on 09/11/2007 11:53:06 AM PDT by Riverman94610
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To: Matchett-PI; gonzo; M Kehoe; oldglory; mcmuffin; JulieRNR21
YES, A LIBERAL HAS A BRAIN
(....too bad it's empty......)

Watch him while away the hours
Shunning meat and eating flowers
Feeling everybody's pain
He would dance and be all merry
If the President were Kerry
Yes, a liberal has a brain

He can eat a latte muffin
As a Mary Jane he's puffin'
He'd like Billary to reign
He can postulate Bush-bashin'
While his welfare check he's cashin'
Yes, a liberal has a brain

He could be another Lincoln
But that would take some thinkin'
And he only has a brain

Leni

54 posted on 09/11/2007 3:08:49 PM PDT by MinuteGal (Three Cheers for the FRed, White and Blue !)
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