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Rigging a study to make conservatives look stupid.
Slate ^ | Sept. 14, 2007 | William Saletan

Posted on 09/14/2007 1:29:14 PM PDT by neverdem

Are liberals smarter than conservatives?

It looks that way, according to a study published this week in Nature Neuroscience. In a rapid response test—you press a button if you're given one signal, but not if you're given a different signal—the authors found that conservatives were "more likely to make errors of commission," whereas "stronger liberalism was correlated with greater accuracy." They concluded that "a more conservative orientation is related to greater persistence in a habitual response pattern, despite signals that this response pattern should change."

Does this mean liberal brains are fitter? Apparently. "Liberals are more responsive to informational complexity, ambiguity and novelty," the authors wrote. New York University, which helped fund the study, concluded, "Liberals are more likely than are conservatives to respond to cues signaling the need to change habitual responses." The study's lead author, NYU professor David Amodio, told London's Daily Telegraph that "liberals tended to be more sensitive and responsive to information that might conflict with their habitual way of thinking."

(Excerpt) Read more at slate.com ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Editorial; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: bias; conservatism; conservatives; liberalism; liberals; psychobabble; psychology
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To: Gondring; neverdem
"distinguishing an M from a W"

That's right. All this test measured was one's processing of visual stimuli. This is a response that is developed by practice, such as playing video games. All they really saw was the difference between the 2 groups of an activity they didn't control for. The rest is irrelevant hand waiving.

The characters were put up for 100ms, and I think the response was supposed to be 500ms after that. don't know the phase... If one practices, they can pick the correct chars out if they're shown for 30ms, and only 150ms is given to respond from the time the char is put up, for hours, until they become so bored they quit.

It has zip to do with political bent, or persuasion.

61 posted on 09/14/2007 2:18:25 PM PDT by spunkets ("Freedom is about authority", Rudy Giuliani, gun grabber)
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To: stubernx98

I’ve been saying that for years. The media and academia has convinced the average guys that these “studies” mean something. In reality, they are just an excuse for the academics to spend tax money to proliferate their own preconceived ideas.


62 posted on 09/14/2007 2:28:16 PM PDT by Brilliant
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To: All

It doesn’t really matter... our side has all the guns...

(This posting is guaranteed to irritate every single liberal within a 100 meter bursting radius.)


63 posted on 09/14/2007 2:36:06 PM PDT by BFM (CLINTON is and always will be a rapist. Never forget!)
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To: neverdem

I would’ve responded sooner but I couldn’t press the post button fast enough.


64 posted on 09/14/2007 2:51:45 PM PDT by repubpub
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To: BFM

LOL


65 posted on 09/14/2007 3:03:29 PM PDT by penelopesire
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To: neverdem

Liberals by definition are not smart. They are creatures that think emotionally and not logically. In order to prove they are smarter, they have to skew factual data to their advantage because they know that intellectually they are not there!


66 posted on 09/14/2007 3:30:47 PM PDT by Bommer (β€œHe that controls the spice controls the universe!” (unfortunately that spice is Nutmeg!))
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To: neverdem

bump


67 posted on 09/14/2007 4:51:45 PM PDT by lowbridge ("We control this House, not the parliamentarians!” -Congressman Steny Hoyer (D))
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To: Brilliant

There will always be an unlimited supply of liberals to hoodwink, deceive, manipulate.

That’s what our mass (public) education produces.


68 posted on 09/14/2007 4:58:48 PM PDT by MikeHu
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To: flintsilver7

Thanks for keeping that information from going down the memory hole.
I wonder what their confidence level was for their study?

Yesterdays kids taught at the blackboard seem to be smarter than todays kids taught on computers. No statistics; just opinion.


69 posted on 09/17/2007 4:50:00 AM PDT by Stark_GOP
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