![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
solarbirdNo, this isn't a funny entry; instead, it's rather alarming. It's like I've had this deep, deep fear about how things might really work for a very, very long time, and now I've found someone doing a bunch of neurobio to discover that my deep fear was exactly right; that it is literally true that rational thought is not significantly involved, and it's not significantly involved at the biological level. (ETA: Yes, I very much want to see the original study. Also, if you're curious, I've looked up the primary author; he seems to be legitimate, at first glance.)
Crap.
Democrats and Republicans Both Adept at Ignoring Facts, Study Finds
By LiveScience Staff
posted: 24 January 2006
10:03 am ET
Democrats and Republicans alike are adept at making decisions without letting the facts get in the way, a new study shows.
And they get quite a rush from ignoring information that's contrary to their point of view.
Researchers asked staunch party members from both sides to evaluate information that threatened their preferred candidate prior to the 2004 Presidential election. The subjects' brains were monitored while they pondered.
[...]
Then, with their minds made up, brain activity ceased in the areas that deal with negative emotions such as disgust. But activity spiked in the circuits involved in reward, a response similar to what addicts experience when they get a fix, Westen explained.
The study points to a total lack of reason in political decision-making. [Emphasis added]
"None of the circuits involved in conscious reasoning were particularly engaged," Westen said. "Essentially, it appears as if partisans twirl the cognitive kaleidoscope until they get the conclusions they want, and then they get massively reinforced for it, with the elimination of negative emotional states and activation of positive ones."
Notably absent were any increases in activation of the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, the part of the brain most associated with reasoning.
[More here]
<td align="center">Your walk is:
Crap.
Democrats and Republicans Both Adept at Ignoring Facts, Study Finds
By LiveScience Staff
posted: 24 January 2006
10:03 am ET
Democrats and Republicans alike are adept at making decisions without letting the facts get in the way, a new study shows.
And they get quite a rush from ignoring information that's contrary to their point of view.
Researchers asked staunch party members from both sides to evaluate information that threatened their preferred candidate prior to the 2004 Presidential election. The subjects' brains were monitored while they pondered.
[...]
Then, with their minds made up, brain activity ceased in the areas that deal with negative emotions such as disgust. But activity spiked in the circuits involved in reward, a response similar to what addicts experience when they get a fix, Westen explained.
The study points to a total lack of reason in political decision-making. [Emphasis added]
"None of the circuits involved in conscious reasoning were particularly engaged," Westen said. "Essentially, it appears as if partisans twirl the cognitive kaleidoscope until they get the conclusions they want, and then they get massively reinforced for it, with the elimination of negative emotional states and activation of positive ones."
Notably absent were any increases in activation of the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, the part of the brain most associated with reasoning.
[More here]
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2006-01-25 12:06 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-01-25 12:08 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-01-25 12:09 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-01-25 12:20 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-01-25 12:25 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-01-25 12:41 am (UTC)I HAVE YOU NOW
Date: 2006-01-25 12:59 am (UTC)Re: I HAVE YOU NOW
Date: 2006-01-25 04:33 am (UTC)Re: I HAVE YOU NOW
Date: 2006-01-25 04:41 am (UTC)To prove I still have teh uber skillz, I will now ignore you and go back to surfing random internet sites.
Re: I HAVE YOU NOW
Date: 2006-01-25 04:43 am (UTC)Re: I HAVE YOU NOW
Date: 2006-01-25 04:43 am (UTC)Don't ask me why. I did *less*.
Re: I HAVE YOU NOW
Date: 2006-01-25 05:12 am (UTC)Were there any survivors?
Re: I HAVE YOU NOW
Date: 2006-01-25 05:51 am (UTC)Weenies.
no subject
Date: 2006-01-25 12:39 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-01-25 12:41 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-01-25 02:34 am (UTC)Walk:
no subject
Date: 2006-01-25 02:51 am (UTC)Cathy
no subject
Date: 2006-01-25 08:51 am (UTC)Which also could explain ADD/ADHD ... what if that system doesn't work? Everything needs to be evaluation and considered, and thus highly distractable by anything that is happening.
Totally random thought that occured while driving to Santa Cruz.
no subject
Date: 2006-01-25 12:22 pm (UTC)ADHD is more like they *don't* register the memory, so can't do it again the next time. They don't learn from the consequences as easily as normal.
People who don't have the emotional valence piece (just have rational ability) are actually quite impaired. They have trouble deciding *anything*.
Cathy
no subject
Date: 2006-01-25 09:06 pm (UTC)Just ask anyone who knows me. Almost any decision - even which route to take home from work, sometimes - can take me a long time to decide.
Every decision I need to make, I spend time thinking about it.
no subject
Date: 2006-01-26 07:15 pm (UTC)