Of Brains and Politics

The results of a recent neurological study suggest that Liberals and Conservatives differ not only with respect to their politics, but also with respect to the way their brains deal with information. An article about the study’s findings makes the following points:


Even in humdrum nonpolitical decisions, liberals and conservatives literally think differently, researchers show. September 10, 2007
Exploring the neurobiology of politics, scientists have found that liberals tolerate ambiguity and conflict better than conservatives because of how their brains work.

In a simple experiment being reported today in the journal Nature Neuroscience, scientists at New York University and UCLA show that political orientation is related to differences in how the brain processes information………

Frank J. Sulloway, a researcher at UC Berkeley's Institute of Personality and Social Research who was not connected to the study, said results "provided an elegant demonstration that individual differences on a conservative-liberal dimension are strongly related to brain activity."

Analyzing the data, Sulloway said liberals were 4.9 times as likely as conservatives to show activity in the brain circuits that deal with conflicts, and 2.2 times as likely to score in the top half of the distribution for accuracy……..


So, comparison of the brains of Liberals and Conservatives reveals two things:

1. Appeals to democratic individuals should differ from appeals to authoritarian individuals. Consider your target audience. Perhaps there need to be separate messages tailored to appeal to each type.

2. Conservatives have an inherent mental disability. ;)