{"id":1659699,"date":"2022-09-27T08:38:34","date_gmt":"2022-09-27T12:38:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1659699"},"modified":"2022-09-27T08:39:41","modified_gmt":"2022-09-27T12:39:41","slug":"rachel-alexander-our-brains-are-wired-differently-than-democrats-so-dont-get-too-mad-at-them","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/rachel-alexander-our-brains-are-wired-differently-than-democrats-so-dont-get-too-mad-at-them\/","title":{"rendered":"Rachel Alexander: Our Brains Are Wired Differently Than Democrats, So Don\u2019t Get Too Mad at Them"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"float:left\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">32<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Frachel-alexander-our-brains-are-wired-differently-than-democrats-so-dont-get-too-mad-at-them%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1659699&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><div><\/div>\n<aside id=\"aside1\" class=\"left aside-wrapper aside-wrapper-950\">\n<\/aside>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">Conservatives get very frustrated at Democrats not understanding how they could harbor such strange views, resulting in assertions that they must be mentally ill. Neuroscience has revealed there are significant brain differences, particularly the fact Democrats use more emotions when they think, so maybe we shouldn\u2019t be so hard on them. Likewise, Republicans are more influenced by feelings of needing to stay safe.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">A flurry of neuroscience studies came out around 2012 examining the differences, with only slight advances since then. A groundbreaking\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/journals.plos.org\/plosone\/article?id=10.1371\/journal.pone.0052970\">study<\/a> in 2013 published by PLOS ONE found that when Democrats think, they show more activity in the left insula, a region associated with emotional processing as well as addiction and social and self-awareness. In contrast, Republicans show more activity in the right amygdala, a region that plays a role in the body\u2019s fight-or-flight system, including aggression and negative reactions to violations of personal space.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">Researchers found that by merely analyzing that type of brain activity, they could predict whether someone is Republican or Democrat 82.9% of the time. Darren Schreiber, a political neuroscientist at the University of Exeter in the UK,\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.motherjones.com\/politics\/2013\/02\/brain-difference-democrats-republicans\/\">said<\/a> after he discovered this difference in processing between the two, he changed his mind about whether Republicans and Democrats have different brains.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">Studies found that people of all political views\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.researchgate.net\/publication\/225367633_Conservative_Shift_among_Liberals_and_Conservatives_Following_91101\">became<\/a> more conservative after 9\/11, due to the fight-or-flight reaction surging. A staggering 38 percent grew more conservative in the 18 months following the attacks, as compared with only 13 percent who became more left-leaning. \u00a0A\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/onlinelibrary.wiley.com\/doi\/full\/10.1111\/ajps.12016\">study<\/a> in 2013 in the American Journal of Political Science specifically focused on fear as a factor that drives the right\u2019s political views.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">Similarly, a study from\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.cell.com\/current-biology\/fulltext\/S0960-9822(11)00289-2\">Current Biology<\/a> in 2011 found that conservative viewpoints were associated with increased right amygdala size, and left-leaning viewpoints were associated with increased gray matter volume of anterior cingulate cortex.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">Granted, having certain political views could also influence changes in your brain, not vice versa, which gets back to the old chicken and the egg argument. A\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/academic.oup.com\/pnasnexus\/article\/1\/3\/pgac066\/6590843?login=false\">study<\/a> that just came out in July at the National Academy of Sciences found there has still been no conclusive determination here yet. That study also found that when stimulated with information meant to cause anxiety, conservatives had more activity between both the orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) and precuneus and the insula and frontal pole\/OFC. And in addition to confirming the findings of previous studies regarding areas of the brain associated with political views, it found the hippocampus and inferior part of the opercular frontal gyrus were tied to conservatism.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">However, Ryota Kanai, one of the authors of the University of South Carolina study,\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.smithsonianmag.com\/innovation\/are-your-political-beliefs-hardwired-108090437\/\">said<\/a> that political beliefs may not develop solely from social experience, that they also could have biological roots, addressed further on in this article. Similarly, the 2013 book\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Predisposed-Liberals-Conservatives-Political-Differences\/dp\/0415535875\/ref=sr_1_2?crid=30SJVYNLLJSH4&amp;dchild=1&amp;keywords=predisposed+liberals+conservatives&amp;qid=1603381545&amp;sprefix=predisposed+%2Caps%2C162&amp;sr=8-2\">Predisposed<\/a>, which analyzed differences in the brain, argued that opposing political views between the right and left are rooted in psychological, physiological, and genetic traits, not just due to different cultures or growing up with different information.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">A 2012 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sciencedaily.com\/releases\/2012\/11\/121101105003.htm\">study<\/a> from the University of South Carolina found through MRI scans that Republicans show more neural activity in areas linked with tight social connectedness like family and country, while Democrats have more neural activity in areas believed to be linked with broad social connectedness, such as friends and the world at-large. This study decimated the long held stereotype that \u201cDemocrats enjoyed a virtual biological lock on caring for others.\u201d This comes as no surprise since <a href=\"https:\/\/pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov\/34429211\/\">studies<\/a> show that conservatives give \u201csignificantly\u201d more generously than those on the left.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">A 2009 <a href=\"https:\/\/pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov\/19379034\/\">study<\/a> in the National Library of Medicine found that Republicans have stronger views when it comes to morals generally. Democrats were <a href=\"http:\/\/thescienceexplorer.com\/humanity\/neuroscience-reveals-differences-between-republican-and-democrat-brains\">more willing<\/a> to betray group loyalty and disrespect authority for cash. A 2010 study in the Attention, Perception &#038; Psychophysics journal on following eye gazes <a href=\"https:\/\/www.livescience.com\/9205-political-leanings-revealed-eyes.html\">found<\/a> that conservatives value personal autonomy more than those on the left, making them less likely to be influenced by others.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">A related\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.livescience.com\/3634-conservatives-easily-disgusted.html\">study<\/a> in 2011 found that conservatives are more grossed out by things than those on the left, such as viewing excrement or a mouthful of wriggling worms. This may correlate to a 2008\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.livescience.com\/2866-political-views-driven-biology.html\">study<\/a> at University of Nebraska-Lincoln which found that conservatives are responsive to threatening images, resulting in supporting defense spending and capital punishment. Interestingly, the differences between men and women were small.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">Conservatives also\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.livescience.com\/2894-conservative-liberal-workspace-reveals.html\">tend<\/a> to be neater and more conscientious. Compounding things, nonpartisans\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/studyfinds.org\/democratic-republican-voters-have-different-brains\/\">show<\/a> different brain activity than either those on the right or or the left, and they make up about\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/wjno.iheart.com\/content\/2020-09-22-democrats-and-republicans-are-literally-wired-differently\/\">40%<\/a> of the population.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">Genetics also plays a significant role in political differences; studies have found that parents\u2019 political affiliations\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.healthline.com\/health-news\/liberals-and-conservatives-assess-risk-differently-021313#Hardwired-for-Politics?\">pass on<\/a> to their children about 70% of the time. Perhaps most compelling of all, John Hibbing, a University of Nebraska political scientist, researched twins and found that identical twins share more political beliefs than fraternal twins. Since identical twins share more genes, he\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.livescience.com\/4454-political-preference-genetic.html\">concluded<\/a>, \u201cForty, perhaps 50 percent of our political beliefs seem to have a basis in genetics.\u201d<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">Unfortunately, some of the interpretations of these studies are clearly not accurate. Left-wing pundits\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/us.blastingnews.com\/opinion\/2017\/06\/neuroscience-reveals-the-difference-between-republicans-and-democrats-001778185.html\">gleefully<\/a> declare that conservatives are not open to radical LGBT expansions because of fear \u2014 but this completely overlooks other factors, such as the high prevalence of Christians on the right who object based on Biblical principles. Similarly, they declare that conservatives are opposed to abortion because of emotion \u2014 while ignoring that conservatives consistently reveal higher correlations to logical reasoning than those on the left.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">Hibbing advises, \u201cIf you think your opponents are not just being willfully bullheaded but rather have a kind of biological predisposition toward a set of beliefs, you might not spend as much time beating your head against the wall trying to get them to change.\u201d While there is some validity to this, and maybe we shouldn\u2019t get so angry at the left because many of them can\u2019t help it, you never know who isn\u2019t going to fit the general rule and can be persuaded to change their viewpoints.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Conservatives get very frustrated at Democrats not understanding how they could harbor such strange views, resulting in assertions that they must be mentally ill. Neuroscience has revealed there<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1659701,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1659699","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1659699","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1659699"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1659699\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1659701"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1659699"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1659699"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1659699"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}