Brain thickness determines political leaning: study

12/29/10

[Libloather]

Missing link only - Brain thickness determines political leaning: study

[Libloather]

A leftist 'friend' of mine recently had an MRI scan performed on his skull.

When they checked his left brain, they found nothing was right. And when they checked his right brain, nothing was left.

[Sopater]

When they checked his left brain, they found nothing was right. And when they checked his right brain, nothing was left.

:-)

[Red Badger]

[lbryce]

I hadn't read the article.Please tell me having a thick head, thick headedness has you leaning to the left. It has to be. Can not be any other way.

[NonValueAdded]

"The amygdala is a part of the brain which is very old and very ancient and thought to be very primitive and to do with the detection of emotions. The right amygdala was larger in those people who described themselves as conservative.

Oh boy, the left will have lots of fun with alternate connotations of the word "primitive" but that aside, given the emotionality of liberalism one could conclude that the diminished, shrunken, atrophied size of a lefty's amygdala explains their lack of emotional control and their inability to burn through emotion to think objectively.

[longtermmemmory]

This is phrenology redux.

The study of bumps on the head determines behavior.

Some country in the 1930’s in europe used the same methods to justify their own political actions.

[writer33]

Oh boy, the left will have lots of fun with alternate connotations of the word "primitive" but that aside, given the emotionality of liberalism one could conclude that the diminished, shrunken, atrophied size of a lefty's amygdala explains their lack of emotional control and their inability to burn through emotion to think objectively.

This may explain why liberals are more apt to bedwetting as well. :-)

[Westbrook]

This is silly.

What about those of us who were leftist atheists who have become conservative Christians?

Did our brain topology change?

[skeeter]

There are black-heads on his shoulders, and he pees himself in the night.

Jethro Tull knew.

[SandRat]

The meat forgive teh pun.

"The anterior cingulate is a part of the brain that is on the middle surface of the brain at the front and we found that the thickness of the grey matter, where the nerve cells of neurons are, was thicker the more people described themselves as liberal or left wing and thinner the more they described themselves as conservative or right wing," he told the program.

"The amygdala is a part of the brain which is very old and very ancient and thought to be very primitive and to do with the detection of emotions. The right amygdala was larger in those people who described themselves as conservative.

[Gondring]

>rimshot< Good one!

As for the study, it seems that it's clear that being conservative develops one's emotions and compassion.

What was that? People are looking at causation the other way?

[Gondring]

And remember, this is from UCL, so it’s the UK definitions of conservative/right-wing, etc.

[MurrietaMadman]

What about those of us who were leftist atheists who have become conservative Christians?

Did our brain topology change?

Everything that matters changed, my FRiend! ;^)

[momtothree]

“This is phrenology redux”

Someone remembers their college Crim or Psyche classes very well.

[9YearLurker]

Funny, that’s the same part of the brain that they’ve recently found correlating with sociability (though note, not socialism):

http://www.bostonherald.com/business/healthcare/view/20101226study_ties_brain_structure_size_to_socializing/

[lbryce]

With such quackery, crackpot theories, I'm sure that country in the 1930's in Europe did not at all have any impact on the population at large, on the continent or on world history,I would have to think. But what do I know? I've got a slew of bumps on my head, skull I have no idea what they are, mean.

[lbryce]

Thanks for taking the time to provide the information you did. But of course. It could be no other way!(tongue-in-cheek) There is order in the universe after all!

[Anima Mundi]

Key word is DETECTION. Detection of emotions and emtionality would seem to me to be very different functions. For example detection of emotions would allow someone to avoid feeling offended or hurt when someone says some offhanded remark because the detection would reveal that nothing bad was intended by the remark.

[newzjunkey]

Since they indicate the correlation was sufficient to be predictive, I don’t think you can take much away from this story about yourself. Maybe you have both, neither or some other attribute.

[EricT.]

Did our brain topology change?

More likely that our brains haved healed from previous controlled substance abuse.