Politics and Your Brain - Whoa!!
Well if you turn on your TV at all these days, you will start to feel the beginnings of the presidential election. There is not a news cycle that goes by without some mention of candidates from both parties. Everyone is jockeying for position right now so we are just getting primed for the intensity of this political battle. What is interesting to me however, is how people align themselves with one party or another. So of course I had to find out if it is our brains or genetics have anything to do with this.
This research is about the science of being liberal or conservative, Democrat or Republican. It has nothing to do with pundits, personal preferences, or familial political tendencies. The research speaks for itself – remember that please as you read through this blog.
Let’s jump in!
A few years ago the Amodio study (Neurocognitive Correlates of Liberalism and Conservatism, 2007) and the Kanai/Colin Firth study (Political Orientations Are Correlated with Brain Structure in Young Adults, 2011) found similar results when comparing images of liberals and conservatives:
Amodio study -> liberalism correlated with greater activity in the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC)
Kanai study -> liberalism correlated with increased volume of gray matter or larger ACC
Kanai study -> found conservatism was correlated with increased volume of the right amygdala
These results have been replicated in other studies. What does this really mean?
The anterior cingulate cortex has various functions in the brain: error detection, conflict monitoring, evaluating or weighing competing choices. It is also important in emotional regulation and cognitive control (executive function) – controlling the level of emotional arousal, or response to an emotional event, therefore allowing cognitive processes to work most effectively. Too much emotion gets in the way of cognitive processing. Low emotional arousal and high cognitive control promote better handling of conflict in the short-term and allow less permanent affects of trauma in the long-term. Those with a larger ACC have more adaptability to changing situations and have cognitive flexibility.
The amygdala is part of the limbic system – the area of the brain associated with emotions. Formation of emotional memories and learning, as well as memory consolidation, occur in the amygdala. Emotion impacts how we process events. When we have a strong emotional reaction – good or bad – to an event, the memory of that event is strengthened.
People with a larger right amygdala have stronger emotional reactions to objects and events and process information through the emotional pathway of the amygdala. They would be swayed by information that touched them on an emotional level. Those with a larger right amygdala also exhibited more empathy.
So how do these brain functions fit with political affiliations? We have to look at what it means to be conservative or liberal. The Guardian described liberalism as ‘adaptability to a changing environment.’ Conservatives however want the stability of previously held values.
Past studies have demonstrated that liberals are more likely to respond to ‘informational complexity, ambiguity and novelty.’ The ACC’s role in conflict monitoring, error detection, and pattern recognition/evaluation open up more flexible thinking before committing to a choice.
Conservatives, with a larger amygdala, process their information through emotion. Going through the amygdala-thinking pathway, conservatives respond to threatening situations with aggression. When the situation is ambiguous, conservatives process information with an emotional response. This results in being less likely to lean towards change and more likely to prefer stability. The cascade goes like this: stability-> predictability-> more expected outcomes ->less of a trigger for anxiety.
Liberals tend toward unpredictability. They prefer change. Their larger ACC helps them deal with radically changing situations and find the important points without emotions getting in the way.
Liberals: compartmentalize; logic-driven
Conservatives: driven by emotion and empathy
Each person has a different way of assigning meaning to what is important to them:
Liberals: more flexible; reliant on data and proof; analytic reasoning
Conservatives: more inflexible (prefer stability), emotion-driven, connect intimately with their
ideas – making those beliefs an important part of their identity
Liberals – more skeptics, agnostics, atheists; more open to alternate explanations; don’t rely
solely on faith
Conservatives – family values platform; more religious people identify; unshakable in their
beliefs of a higher power
Liberals: when making a case for an idea or a cause – they are armed with data, research
studies, and experts
assign meaning and value fit within the scientific method
Conservatives: less likely to assign scientific method
thinking style leads with emotion
has to be personally meaningful
needs to trigger empathy
therefore, they need an emotional attachment to the idea/cause
Let’s look at one more study with Democrats and Republicans
areas linked to broad social connectedness involving family, friends and the world at large -> light up the Democratic brain
neural activity in parts of the brain associated with tight social connectedness – focus on family and country ->light up in the Republican brain
Now here is the disclaimer for all of these studies:
Our brains are adaptable – they adapt to our environment (neuroplasticity). Even though we discussed the differences in brain structure and function according to Democratic/liberal and Republican/conservative models – these functions can still change in response to the environment. We are a diverse culture. We can be influenced in our thinking by research findings but we can’t be pigeon-holed by them. No one brain thinks exactly like another.
We consciously make our own decisions about political affiliations. Predominant thinking among our peer groups might have an influence on our decisions – but it does not determine them. Just because our parents might have been Republican or Democrat doesn’t mean we will choose that path. This is not genetically motivated.
And, this comparison of Republicans/conservatives and Democrats/liberals is a study of group comparisons. This is not about individual preferences. How boring would that be if we all neatly fit into one group or another?
If you get into a political discussion over the next year hopefully you will understand how the other person’s brain might be processing information – even if you don’t understand anything else they are trying to say.
Put your seat belts on – I think this will be a bumpy ride!
Koren,M. (February 14, 2013). Study predicts political beliefs with 83 percent accuracy. Retrieved September 10, 2015 from http://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/study-predicts-political-beliefs-with-83-percent-accuracy-17536124/?no-ist
Mooney,C. (September 17, 2011). Your brain on politics: the cognitive neuroscience of liberals and conservatives. The Intersection. Retrieved September 10, 2015 from http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/intersectioon/2011/09/07/your-brain-on-politics-the-cognitive-neuroscience-of-liberals-and-conservatives/#.VfGcN7RRqRs
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with any questions or comments.
Thanks for reading my blog!
Pat