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I wonder how these perceptions of others' gazes affects connections with others and the ability to discern truth.

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I think that just based off instinct, I would think this would be the other way around because Liberals are more focused on the negative and what needs to be changed and conservatives are more focused on the positive (what they have now).

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This is really interesting, This is essentially saying that conservatives are less willing/able to cope with change where as liberals are less likely to instagate or force change.

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This probably why they so heavily associate abstinence with purity

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i definitely agree i see that liberals are very open to new ideas while conservative arent

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This study seems to further confirm other studies that I have read today, in that physiological responses to threats seem to correlate with certain political ideologies. I found it interesting that the study hesitated to label the positions as liberal/conservative.

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I found it interesting how different parts of the republicans brain and democrats brain become active during a risk-taking task.

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I think this might relate to liberals being more empathetic and open-minded, meaning they consider different issues from multiple points of view, whereas conservatives stereotypically only look at things from their point of view.

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I thought that this one was really interesting, and I think it relates to a sense of privilege and security.

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This makes sense to me because it's because of fear, that people don't try to understand or practice tolerance

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This demonstrates that fundamentally, Liberals and Conservatives think differently

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I think this is really interesting, because I would have expected it to be the other way around based on articles I've seen about relative happiness within political parties.

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This makes sense to me because I tend to associate conservatives with hatred and lack of understanding

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I thought that this one was really interesting. When I started learning about politics I definitely had views similar to my liberal family and friends, but as I started learning more on my own thats when my views changed and became leftist.

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This sort of speaks to the uses with both parties as liberals tend to have lots of infighting whereas conservatives tend to choose a personality that they put on a pedestal.

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i think this is interesting and can correlate with the conservative idea that same 🤬 couples shouldn't be able to adopt because they dont think that they will be able to take good care of the kid

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I wonder what this says about policy making i=on the conservative side, it makes sense in that case that pro life is a conservative issue, the idea of abortion is not pretty and might illicit a pretty strong physiological response.

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This probably speaks to the fact that liberals tend to try to be empathetic to different people

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I think this one makes a lot of sense. Based on what has been shown in the past, Conservatives have a higher tendancy to prevent change, and "trust the old ways." It makes sense that when faced with conflict, conservaives would be less likely to try and alter responses.

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What would their definition of "pure" be? You could have innocuous things, like a lake with pure water, or you could take that in a much worse direction by associating it with how racism was connected to having a "pure" race.

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I found this article very interesting. I can see how this conclusion was made. I feel like conservatives do not like radical change based on fear, and not wanting negative outcomes.

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I think this accurately lines up with the general goals and beliefs of each political party, as liberals continue to be advocates for change while conservatives were associated with purity and tradition in other articles. This can also be connected to risk factor, and the article about brain activity. This supports conservatives showing greater sensitivity to threatening stimuli, the threat being a possible negative outcome of change.

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I thought that this one was very interesting, and I wonder if it is because liberals have an easier time relating to people

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I think that this articles findings relate to the idea of disliking the unknown or people/things different from yourself. The article mentioned conservatives are more sensitive to fear which may be why they prefer sticking to tradition and dislike change.

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This article more and more is teaching me about how important food role models are in parenting, nurture is a strong indication of how you turn out

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I think it's really interesting that the brain activity typically occurs in two places, and that it varies from liberals to conservatives, this also might relate to genetics, and how people process risk-related behaviors.

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This shows that conservatives can be judgmental on other people's lives: abortion, immigration, LGBTQ+, weed laws, etc

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This is interesting because when I look at Fox News sometimes, there are always gory headlines and images, and I wonder if this is to cater to their Republican audience

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I found it interesting that activity in the DLPFC reflects cognitively dissonant, complex social judgments which are often associated with conservatives. I would like to know more about psychology and how the brain processes information.

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The accuracy of the test is astounding and it is really interesting that were just wired differently, I wonder how much of that is nature and how much is nurture

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This one surprises me. Based on stereotypes I woul have thought that Democrats would be better at "reading the room" and judging other people's emotions. I am not surprised that Democrats show lower life satisfaction, I think that Republicans have a greater tendancy to "stick with what they've got" and not push for change.

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I am curious as to how this information this was obtained and how accurate this. is

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I wonder if this relates to how one views their own self in comparison to others. 

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I wonder if this relates to how one views their own self in comparison to others. 

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-Ellen Keefe

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In my opinion, this makes sense. Many conservatives like to keep things the same, while many liberals can be progressive, and change things.

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I agree with Jaedon how did they find that out haha

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I wonder if this has any relation to how people were raised, and whether they have a greater response because of limited exposure to negative environments.

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Is it a coincidence that liberals are called left wing and Republican are right wing or is this why political parties are assocciated with that?

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i just want to know how they got this information or how they surveyed people too find this data but this is very interesting

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I'd be very curious to know if that is something they're born with, or something that is learned as they grow up. Could it be that conservatives are raised with more fear-based punishment systems? This is a great case of nature vs nurture.

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This is really interesting and it might give some insight into why different political groups react to events differently

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I think this relates to topic 7 . I think liberals are more open to the unknown.

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I found this article very interesting. I think that it makes sense regarding topics discussed politically today, and how conservatives/liberals react to certain topics.

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I found it interesting how the author described conservative ideology as low effort, "normal, and perhaps natural"

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Ellen Keefe                                   I think that this relates to conservative views on abortion and gay marriage. 

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Ellen Keefe                                   I think that this relates to conservative views on abortion and gay marriage. 

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I find it interesting how images that have little to nothing to do with politics can be used to justify a political standing

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I wonder if this is because of how the child was raised or an actual genetic difference? And if it is based on genetics, why do some people change their political opinions over time?

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This is an interesting pattern to notice - I'd be interested in asking why each group preferred one type of photo over the other.

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This "low level thinking" can be compared to liberals typically being more openminded. One can connect this to the brain activity article because bringing in new sources and additional information may disrupt what was once a simple concept.

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i just found it very interesting that peoples brain function differently based on their political opinion

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I find that this observation can be inaccurate in many different scenarios. for example, I thought the image was gross but I do not identify as conservative.

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This study further proves study 3 (that conservatives react more strongly to negative environmental factors), as such disgusting images may portray a negative environment.

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I find this one especially interesting. I think that generally the stereotype is that Conservatives tend to lean towards violent ways of dealing with things, so I guess it is appropriate that they would respond more strongly to negative stimuli? I think that out of most of the points on this list, I find it easiest to accept this one, it seems very plausible.

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Off the top of my head, I did in fact not know what these parts of the brain were used for. After looking it up I found that the Insula covers basic survival needs and the Amaydala is more about emotions, like fear. Maybe this represents liberals passion for human rights.

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I think It's interesting how when thinking about risk, liberals and conservatives are using different parts/sides of their brains.

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Ellen Keefe.                                  I thought it was interesting how conservatives use low level thinking compared to liberals. I think this could also relate to happiness levels. 

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Ellen Keefe.                                  I thought it was interesting how conservatives use low level thinking compared to liberals. I think this could also relate to happiness levels. 

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This makes sense because Conservatives want the economic system to stay the same and not be meddled with.

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I find it interesting how your genes and environment specifically with your parents contribute to political standing, even more so how it stabilizes when you move away from your parents at around age 20.

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I thought the same brain signals due to a disgusting image would be universal, but that does make sense because different pictures have different persuasion effects depending on the person.

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I feel like there are some shortfalls in this article, because it doesn't explain the relevance of the side of the brain activity takes place in. It's sort of like saying "we ran the tests and it looks like vegans prefer the left nostril, whereas meat eaters prefer the right side", with no explanation of why you should care

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I found it interesting that conservatives show greater sensitivity to threatening stimuli. This can be compared to a liberal's desire for change v. a conservative's desire to uphold tradition. Change in this case would serve as the threat that a conservative would react strongly to.

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This is a really interesting thing to test concidering that it seems to be a general notion that you get your political views from the people around you when you are growing up.

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I found it really interesting that even though the images shown had no obvious relationship to politics, neural responses were still accurate predictions of the subject's political ideology.

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I thought it was interesting how conservatives look at unhappy images more, since I feel like I see a lot of articles about conservatives being happier.

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I thought it was interesting how conservatives look at unhappy images more, since I feel like I see a lot of articles about conservatives being happier.

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-Ellen

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It surprised me when I read that conservatives like looking at unpleasant images because I have no idea why they would want to do that, because they tend to be happier overall.

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I thought that it was a very interesting observation. I am curious how this information was found. I wonder if there is a correlation between the images psychologically and if it plays a role in where people stand politically.

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I found it interesting that conservatives respond more strongly both physiologically and psychologically to negative factors in the environment.

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Huh. I find this one interesting, because I think there can be a stereotype that Liberals are more creative than Conservatives. My guess is that this is what would influence particularly active dreams? Also I found it interesting that Liberal women had the most dream references to homosexuality, because Liberal women are also the group of people who are most in support of that issue.

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I thought it was interesting how even though liberals and conservatives have similar risk taking levels, they use different parts of their brain

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I thought it was interesting how even though liberals and conservatives have similar risk taking levels, they use different parts of their brain

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-Ellen

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There should not be comments added below as these are the directions.  Thank you!

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There should not be comments added below as these are the directions.  Thank you!

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Open the following article and read 5 of the peer-reviewed studies.  After you read the study, find the corresponding number to the right (use the scroll bar at the bottom to see all 20) and write a reflection about what you read, i.e. something you found interesting, how it relates to a real-world example, etc.  

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Open the following article and read 5 of the peer-reviewed studies.  After you read the study, find the corresponding number to the right (use the scroll bar at the bottom to see all 20) and write a reflection about what you read, i.e. something you found interesting, how it relates to a real-world example, etc.  

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Make sure you add your name to top of the post.

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20 peer-reviewed studies show liberals and conservatives physiologically different

In the 20 peer-reviewed scientific studies summarized below, researchers found that liberals and conservatives have different brain structures, different physiological responses to stimuli, and activate different neural mechanisms when confronted with similar situations. Each entry below cites the source document. The studies are arranged from most recent to oldest. We included all the peer-reviewed studies on this subject that we could find. If you know about others, please contact us with details.

1. Brain responses to a disgusting image are sufficient to make accurate predictions about an individual's political ideology.

2. Neurocognitive responses to conflict differ among the children of liberals, moderates, and conservatives.

"Given recent evidence that political ideology is associated with neural responses to cognitive conflict in adults, we tested the exploratory hypothesis that children's neurocognitive responses to conflict may also differ depending on their parents' ideology.

We assessed relations between parental political ideology and children's neurocognitive responses to conflict...

Because previous research documents heightened liberal-conservative differences in threat-relevant contexts, each trial of the task was preceded by an angry face (threat-relevant) or comparison face (happy or neutral).

An effect of parental ideology on the conflict-related N2 [a measure of electrical activity of the brain surface] emerged in the threat condition, such that the N2 was larger among children of liberals compared with children of moderates and conservatives. These findings suggest that individual differences in neurocognitive responses to conflict, heightened in the context of threat, may reflect a more general pattern of individual differences that, in adults, relates to political ideology."

Tracy A. Dennis, David M. Amodio, and Laura J. O'Toole, "Associations between Parental Ideology and Neural Sensitivity to Cognitive Conflict in Children," Social Neuroscience, Oct. 16, 2014

15. Genetics influence political attitudes during early adulthood and beyond.

"The present research attempts to characterize how the transmission of political orientations develops over the life course... [G]enetic influences on political attitudes are absent prior to young adulthood. During childhood and adolescence, individual differences in political attitudes are accounted for by a variety of environmental influences... However, at the point of early adulthood (in the early 20s), for those who left their parental home, there is evidence of a sizeable genetic influence on political attitudes which remains stable throughout adult life."

Peter K. Hatemi, Carolyn L. Funk, Sarah E. Medland, Hermine M. Maes, Judy L. Silberg, Nicholas G. Martin, and Lindon J. Eaves, "Genetic and Environmental Transmission of Political Attitudes Over a Life Time ," The Journal of Politics, July 21, 2009

16. Conservatives learn better from negative stimuli than from positive stimuli and are more risk avoidant than liberals.

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Differences in Conservative and Liberal Brains

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In the 20 peer-reviewed scientific studies summarized below, researchers found that liberals and conservatives have different brain structures, different physiological responses to stimuli, and activate different neural mechanisms when confronted with similar situations. Each entry below cites the source document. The studies are arranged from most recent to oldest.