Yale study on political divisions and...the brain?

[_Maksutov]

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/ins ... 29474dcc2d

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From the article:

Keeping ourselves and our loved ones safe from harm is perhaps our strongest human motivation, deeply embedded in our very DNA. It is so deep and important that it influences much of what we think and do, maybe more than we might expect. For example, over a decade now of research in political psychology consistently shows that how physically threatened or fearful a person feels is a key factor — although clearly not the only one — in whether he or she holds conservative or liberal attitudes.

Conservatives, it turns out, react more strongly to physical threat than liberals do. In fact, their greater concern with physical safety seems to be determined early in life: In one University of California study, the more fear a 4-year-old showed in a laboratory situation, the more conservative his or her political attitudes were found to be 20 years later. Brain imaging studies have even shown that the fear center of the brain, the amygdala, is actually larger in conservatives than in liberals. And many other laboratory studies have found that when adult liberals experienced physical threat, their political and social attitudes became more conservative (temporarily, of course). But no one had ever turned conservatives into liberals.

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Would especially like to hear from EA and other thoughtful posters.

[_Maxine Waters]

But no one had ever turned conservatives into liberals.

People seem to convert to liberalism as they become disenchanted with Mormonism. Kevin Graham is the rule. People like The CCC are the rare exception to that rule. I've questioned Mormonism as well, but it never seemed to change my basic views on moral right and wrong.

There's nothing wrong with fear. It's there for a reason. Part of what I admire the most about Stonewall Jackson was his ability to control that fear which had everything to do with his religious beliefs. Call us racist. Call us uneducated. There should be no question about our bravery. It's the highest of southern virtues.

[_MeDotOrg]

But no one had ever turned conservatives into liberals.

People seem to convert to liberalism as they become disenchanted with Mormonism. Kevin Graham is the rule. People like The CCC are the rare exception to that rule. I've questioned Mormonism as well, but it never seemed to change my basic views on moral right and wrong.

Wow, that is a loaded statement. 'Convert' means to drop one set of religious beliefs for another. If you let go of religious belief without replacing it with another one, I don't think you can call that 'conversion'.

And I don't think you can equate being religious strictly with liberal or conservative. Think of the early converts to Christianity (or later Mormons). It was the radical acceptance of a new idea. That willingness to entertain new ideas is an anathema to religious orthodoxy, and I think most people would argue there's a high correlation between orthodoxy and conservatism.

I think we associate being 'religious' with being conservative because Christianity has been around since the axial age. We think of someone who converts to Buddhism as more likely to be a liberal, but Buddhism is about 500 years older than Christianity. It's the Western perspective of seeing Buddhism as something 'trendy' because it is unusual in the west.

There's nothing wrong with fear. It's there for a reason. Part of what I admire the most about Stonewall Jackson was his ability to control that fear which had everything to do with his religious beliefs. Call us racist. Call us uneducated. There should be no question about our bravery. It's the highest of southern virtues.

Fear is definitely useful. But many times we don't really understand how fear affects our judgement. Fear exists in the lowest, oldest part of our consciousness, in the limbic stem we share with reptiles.

If you want to know the prevalence of the manipulation of the unconscious mind, just google limbic advertising. Unconscious fears are unexamined fears, which may or may not be rational. And many times those fears are manipulated quite deliberately. One of the greatest moneymaking schemes of all times has to be Catholic Church and the Treasury of Merit. Are you afraid of going to hell? Step right up and buy a 'Get Out of Jail Free' card! We have an infinite supply!

Modern policital advertising is rife with direct appeals to unconscious fears. As long as fears remain unexamined motivators in our unconsciousness, they make us susceptible to irrational arguments.

[_honorentheos]

Thanks for sharing the article, Mak. It was interesting. It's closing remarks are probably the most valuable as they remind us that we are much less in control of our attitudes and thoughts than we think, but that by investing in being informed we are more "safe" from being unwittingly manipulated by those who know the right strings to pull:

All of us believe that our social and political attitudes are based on good reasons and reflect our important values. But we also need to recognize how much they can be influenced subconsciously by our most basic, powerful motivations for safety and survival. Politicians on both sides of the aisle know this already and attempt to manipulate our votes and party allegiances by appealing to these potent feelings of fear and of safety.

Instead of allowing our strings to be pulled so easily by others, we can become more conscious of what drives us and work harder to base our opinions on factual knowledge about the issues, including information from outside our media echo chambers. Yes, our views can harden given the right environment, but our work shows that they are actually easier to change than we might think.

[_honorentheos]

One aspect of this I think deserves bringing up, though, is what appears to be a strong appeal to safety in younger forms of liberalism. Everything defined as a threat or aggression sure sounds like pandering to fear to me. That's something to think about, too, as I don't think the current political environment is fully defined by "liberal=feeling safe, conservative=feeling fearful" as a paradigm. Much of the language one hears on both sides today is the language of fear it seems. Hmm.

[_Maksutov]

But no one had ever turned conservatives into liberals.

People seem to convert to liberalism as they become disenchanted with Mormonism. Kevin Graham is the rule. People like The CCC are the rare exception to that rule. I've questioned Mormonism as well, but it never seemed to change my basic views on moral right and wrong.

There's nothing wrong with fear. It's there for a reason. Part of what I admire the most about Stonewall Jackson was his ability to control that fear which had everything to do with his religious beliefs. Call us racist. Call us uneducated. There should be no question about our bravery. It's the highest of southern virtues.

Suicide bombers and kamikazi flyers are/were brave, too. Militant fanatics often are. They are especially brave in shedding the blood of innocents.

Sorry. No respect for your example or your lost cause. Your ancestors made mistakes, so did mine. I own it.

[_Maxine Waters]

Suicide bombers and kamikazi flyers are/were brave, too. Militant fanatics often are. They are especially brave in shedding the blood of innocents.

Sucide bombing civilians was not honorable in my culture . Robert E. Lee declined to continue fighting the civil war using guerilla warfare tactics because he believed that to be dishonorable.

[_Some Schmo]

Sucide bombing civilians was not honorable in my culture . Robert E. Lee declined to continue fighting the civil war using guerilla warfare tactics because he believed that to be dishonorable.

But owning other people was totally cool.