Monday, September 10, 2007

The astute right wing blogger is typically astute


By that I mean he is absolutely clueless and can't read. I have noticed this before in rightie bloggers.

His comment on the scientific research of the brain differences between conservatives and liberals is another example of rightie ignorance. The research does not say there is more emotional activity in the brain of left-wing bloggers. That was completely made up or misread by the RWA blogger.

What the article really says, for those who can read and interpret and have rudimentary cognition and interpretation skills, is that those who describe themselves as more liberal had better judgement and were more discerning in a simple computer test of reactions.
Previous psychological studies have found that conservatives tend to be more structured and persistent in their judgments whereas liberals are more open to new experiences. The latest study found those traits are not confined to political situations but also influence everyday decisions.

The results show "there are two cognitive styles -- a liberal style and a conservative style," said UCLA neurologist Dr. Marco Iacoboni, who was not connected to the latest research.

Participants were college students whose politics ranged from "very liberal" to "very conservative." They were instructed to tap a keyboard when an M appeared on a computer monitor and to refrain from tapping when they saw a W.

M appeared four times more frequently than W, conditioning participants to press a key in knee-jerk fashion whenever they saw a letter.

Each participant was wired to an electroencephalograph that recorded activity in the anterior cingulate cortex, the part of the brain that detects conflicts between a habitual tendency (pressing a key) and a more appropriate response (not pressing the key). Liberals had more brain activity and made fewer mistakes than conservatives when they saw a W, researchers said. Liberals and conservatives were equally accurate in recognizing M.
Previous research had shown the difficulty that conservatives have with ambiguity and the tendency to stick with what they know. Other research has defined the conservative mindset. It is still not clear how much of this is genetic and how much of this is upbringing - the authoritarian versus nurturing parent debate. BTW, current child rearing theory is neither, parents should be authoritative. I am leaning towards the political psychopathology of infants reared without affection. The parenting style debate spread to politics and framing via Lakoff who is half-right. Ezra is right, Lakoff is a genius about framing but an idiot at framing.

As I often do, I seemed to have wandered away from the start of this blog which was another post about the inability of right wing bloggers to read or reason.

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