Hey what’s that?
Did you flinch by chance? In some
studies the way you react to pictures may be an indicator of what political
party that you fall into. Dr. Wendell’s
lecture we found that in general conservatives react to stimuli like blood or
infected cuts more than liberals. In fact conservatives show more “activation
on their right amygdala, which is linked
with reward, fear, and risky decisions, whereas the liberals experienced more
activity in the left posterior insula, which processes emotion.”(Pappas, 2013).
In viewing their facial expressions conservatives often show distress in their facial
reactions where liberals almost seemed apathetic. Wendell presented an experiment
where subjects viewed thirty regular images like fruit and faces but mixed in
were 3 images that are kept secret to the public because of a need to maintain their
shock factor. Wendell was able to show us a few images one that stuck in my
mind was the cut filled with maggots. He discussed that those who paid more attention to the
threatening images were most likely to be conservative. Liberals by comparison reacted less to these stimuli.
So I think what I vote?
But does this means
that I am doomed to ride the red tails of the republican party? Well maybe and
maybe not in general these people show activity in how they think but this doesn’t
mean that it determines what they think. In the report by Pappas, the brain
functions of liberals and conservatives were analyzed and although they concluded that “no
difference in the amount of risk people of each political persuasion were
willing to take on during a gambling game. But the way the brain processed risk
worked differently between the groups.” So although the brains would go through
different processes they ultimately would result in the same result. So even
though some individuals who are squeamish and dislike change can be categorized
as a conservative they don’t necessarily need to be conservatives.
Works cited
Pappas, Stephanie. "Brain Scans Can Predict Your
Political Ideology." LiveScience.com. N.p.,
19 Feb. 2013. Web. 13 Dec. 2013.
I guess it could be bothersome, heh. It also means that one is functioning as an intellectual being, attuned to reflexes enough to react to them. Politics means they can build a solid piece of thought around it, and use that to try and elevate themselves. There is no exercise of smarts than voting in an election. So folks, what are you waiting for ? :)
ReplyDeleteChristian @ League of Woman Voters