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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.

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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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Anna: This makes sense because many republicans blindly follow Trump despite his inability to tell the truth. While many liberals don't support Biden (but will vote for him) even though he is democratic nominee. I think liberals also tend to point out flaws in their own candidates while republicans often do not. Also keep in mind these are generalizations so they aren't true for every single person who identifies as a liberal or conservative.

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Anna: This makes sense because many republicans blindly follow Trump despite his inability to tell the truth. While many liberals don't support Biden (but will vote for him) even though he is democratic nominee. I think liberals also tend to point out flaws in their own candidates while republicans often do not. Also keep in mind these are generalizations so they aren't true for every single person who identifies as a liberal or conservative.

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Children's views are not based on or influences by politics

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This could be why conservatives are more likely to not support things like gay marriage- even though it doesn't mean that they have to even interact with people who identify as homosexual or abortion even though they would not be forced to have one.

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i think its interesting that neural processing differences which emerge from the stimuli from emotions can help to structure someones beliefs

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This could explain the logical reasoning behind why we associate the conservative party with a sense of tradition and the liberal party with a sense of change as liberal thought is apparently provoked by challenging and changing current ideologies and conservatives focus more on more natural thoughts

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This explains why liberals tend to be more passionate about their cause compared to conservatives.

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Must be why there is such a huge market for marketing in campaigns. The images aim for a certain response in the viewer.

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This is really interesting to me because it suggests that people have a sort of predetermined political view due to the way the brain is developed.

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This could help explain why communication between the two groups is sometimes so strained, as they don't always interpret the same events in the same way

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The article states that electrical activity among children of liberals was higher than that of moderates and conservatives in a threat situation. Possibly this is because more higher income individuals tend to be conservative/moderate and shelter their children. As a result, they don't really understand the full implications of a possibly dangerous situation

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I wonder at what age children start exhibiting this correlation between their parents' ideology and their own responses to conflict.

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Maybe this explains why conservatives are more likely to stick with older traditions

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This supports why such graphic images are used in campaign ads and clips

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This could show the willingness of liberals on social freedoms than conservatives

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So I guess it means that people already have a set way of thinking politically, so is that why it is so hard for people to change their opinions on politics?

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this shows why liberals are more for change than conservatives are

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Anna: This was really interesting. Maybe this relates to conservatives having a more "traditional" sense of reality whereas liberals are in favor of change?

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Anna: This was really interesting. Maybe this relates to conservatives having a more "traditional" sense of reality whereas liberals are in favor of change?

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This is something that Conservatives is better than liberal parties

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I can definitely see this in real world scenarios. It makes sense because typically conservatives have strong interests in preserving tradition and limiting change caused by the government. On the other hand, liberals tend to support government intervention in economic policies, and this can come in a lot of different forms such as UBI or welfare programs. Even in just healthcare, there are multiple ideas being pushed right now (public option vs. single payer). It seems like being able to change habitual responses would be more important in a political mindset with so many differing opinions.

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I feel like this could be part of (from my observation) more conservative parents attempting to ignore all politics around their children, while more liberal parents will try to instill their political beliefs in their children.

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Liberals are more likely to research and find out the facts as opposed to the rigid tradition that doesn't take effort from the conservatives

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This is interesting because I usually see conservatives as people that live in rural areas.

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interesting because young children really don't have political views but shows that parents' views can have a huge impact

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I actually was not expecting the study to find that conservatives had stronger responses to negative environmental stimuli, since liberals tend to focus more on the negative aspects of society and are normally more inclined to want to change them.

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This aligns strongly with a lot of religious principles and explains better why preserving religious tradition is important to conservatives

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This could be a reason why it might be so difficult for liberals and conservatives to find common ground.

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the risk taking behavior between the two did not differ but the brain activity did. its interesting how conservatives show greater sensitivity to threatening stimuli

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I think it is really interesting how political views and biology can be linked

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Anna: This also makes sense. I think this is why Trump's fear tactics have worked with his supporters. Also, I definitely see how liberals are less risk avoidant than conservatives. Most of the younger generation identifies as liberal and generally younger people take more risks.

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Anna: This also makes sense. I think this is why Trump's fear tactics have worked with his supporters. Also, I definitely see how liberals are less risk avoidant than conservatives. Most of the younger generation identifies as liberal and generally younger people take more risks.

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This lines up with the views of the liberals and conservatives, how a liberal tends to be influenced more by others

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This goes along with the common stereotype that liberals tend to advocate for the well being of lower classes and the "unseen" and the stereotype that conservatives tend to not trust the government.

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This is probably why liberals are more open to change rather than tradition, because they're not as afraid of uncertainty

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Surprising because environmental issues are usually heavily associated with the liberal agenda

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This falls in line with conservatives following their traditional ideas and not be swayed by others

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Maybe this is is why conservatives are so against stuff like abortion even though it doesn't personally affect their life

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This makes sense because conservative mindsets tend to fall into restricting changes and keeping things the same or doing something that has been done before. While liberal thinking is usually trying to think of new ways to do something

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This could be why liberals are generally more willing to accept differences and political change, on human rights issues especially

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This supports the stereotype of conservatives growing more angry over things that don't bother others nearly as much

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This aligns with the idea that conservatives don't like change and don't like seeing many new things.

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This could also be supported by the fact that a significant portion of the conservative base are non college educated individuals.

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This fact while now supported by a study has always seemed evident as generally political opinions are confined to geographical areas which makes sense when the same families are continuously teaching and promoting the same values

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The amygdala is associated with the flight or fight response and is normally a part of the brain activated when there is a very personal threat against the individual. Meanwhile, the left insula area focuses on empathy and awareness of others, not just yourself. This could explain conservatives' greater tendency to emphasize self-reliance over governmental aid, for example.

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there is a physiological distinction between approach based and avoidance based. conservatives is avoidance based and liberals are approach based

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this is still happening by people not knowing whats going on around them in the sense of voting and other descion making

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this could show why conservatives would be more for UBI than just raising taxes to help people in poverty

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Anna: Liberals are certainly more open-minded because of their advocacy for groups of people who have not always bee accepted in American society. This might be a generalization but most artists are liberal, maybe this is why they are considered more creative? 

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Anna: Liberals are certainly more open-minded because of their advocacy for groups of people who have not always bee accepted in American society. This might be a generalization but most artists are liberal, maybe this is why they are considered more creative? 

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This aligns with the common beliefs of conservatives that there should be more government control when it comes to social political issues versus the common beliefs of liberals that there should be more freedom in those areas.

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I think this could relate to why conservatives are against change and against things that are seen as out of the norm or extreme.

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This makes sense based off the idea that conservatives mindset is to follow tradition or not make many changes, while liberals are not opposed to big change and finding new ways to do things.

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This makes sense because political view is usually determined by your parents and what they believe in.

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Makes sense why people say that change is scary. People who get scared more easily won't like change because it's new and hasn't been navigated before. Liberal minded people would have to be more comfortable with uncertainty.

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I find that liberals often naively assume best intentions/best outcomes even when there is little to no basis for them, while conservatives assume worst intentions/outcomes (even when there is little to no basis for them, especially when they are opposing what the other side has to say). I guess this could be a reflection of this mental process on a party identification level.

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Lower life satisfaction for Democrats could possibly be because  Conservatives tend to be more religious. Some sort of religious belief is commonly linked to level of content in life

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it does not surprise me that the environment in which a kid is in helps to shape their political views

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This better explains the failures in the more liberal democratic party where in they have trouble seeing the benefit and achieving unification while conservatives clearly have this understanding

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This makes a lot of sense, conservatives are known for wanting to keep things the way they have been traditionally and liberals want things to change so it would make sense that liberals have more of a tolerance to uncertainty and conservatives have a bigger sensitivity to fear

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this is why when Trump makes those commercials that show the old lady getting robbed because there is no more police, they work so well to get people to support him

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This makes sense as oftentimes your views are similar to your parents and this is shown throughout generations. The fact that political opinions are often similar to others in your same geographical area supports this as well.

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This can explain why conservatives tend to be less educated than the average liberal. I believe there are studies that back this up.

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This goes along with #18 as it supports the idea of liberals having more creativity and emphasizes the mind constantly working

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This is saying how conservatives brains was having low actvity and liberals as high activity

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Might help explain why many conservatives are against immigration/globalization: perhaps they find faces of people that look different from them to be threatening.

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This relates back to conservatives being more traditional and highly valuing their religion.

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there are certain personality difference not only on self report trait but also unobtrusive, nonverbal styles of interaction and behavioral residue

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This kind of goes with the idea that conservatives don't like change or things that are out of what they consider normal.

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Anna: This insight was really interesting because it was the only one that didn't compare liberals and conservative necessarily. Those with strong political beliefs tended to not respond to "fearful stimuli" while those who did respond tended to be in favor of defense spending and punishment. This does show that conservatives are more responsive to fear because they are in favor of both of those issues.

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Anna: This insight was really interesting because it was the only one that didn't compare liberals and conservative necessarily. Those with strong political beliefs tended to not respond to "fearful stimuli" while those who did respond tended to be in favor of defense spending and punishment. This does show that conservatives are more responsive to fear because they are in favor of both of those issues.

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Conservatives today tend to respond a lot better to fearful messages than they do to hopeful ones, so it would make sense if they have a higher physiological response to threats such as loud noises.

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This supports the idea that conservatives oftentimes want to preserve traditions and the way the household has been in the past whereas liberals tend to want major change in these same areas. Even within certain areas, like religion, conservatives are stereotypically going to want to keep a very traditional way of their faith and liberals tend to be more open to change in their religion.

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This ties back into how conservatives tend to be portrayed as a little more rigid and how liberals tend to be more open minded and willing to come up with new ideas

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Parents often shape how a child thinks and views the world. It would make sense for them to be influenced by their parents.

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This is really weird, but I guess it can make sense because humans are good at ignoring things they want to ignore, so if conservative people avoid thinking about anything uncomfortable more than a liberal person, then they most likely wouldn't dream of it.

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This doesn't necessarily make sense to me. I disagree that conservatives are focused on preventing negative outcomes, at least across the board. They only do this when it works for them. If they were actually focused on this, they would, for example, encourage access to birth control/contraception and advocate for universal healthcare. Reasonably speaking, these do prevent negative outcomes so far as the health of the population is concerned. This is just one example but there are more.

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The conservative interpretation of the faces as threatening could be an explanation as to why more conservatives think military and economic power is more important that liberals do.

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This idea might be the explanation why conservatives focus more on gradual long lasting plans while liberals believe more immediate necessary change is necessary as conservatives political plans are in an effort to avoid further risks

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This supports the idea that conservatives tend to have a better grasp on all parts of a plan they want to push forward and explains why they have the ability to garner more support from others quickly

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Ultimately I see this as a positive and reassuring trend; this trend could be perceived as a sort of balancing power, that helps prevent the country from ignoring either preventing negative outcomes or advancing positive ones.

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This supports liberals being progressive and the basic idea of conservatives staying in line with tradition.

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This shows how the parents make there childdren believe Political stuff at a young age instead of them going with there mind set.

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This could go along with the idea that conservatives are much less to go with an idea because it is not their own idea or tradition.

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This is an interesting study to do on an epigenetic level. Epigenetics is a field we don't know much about and this could be a perfect break into it.

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It's so interesting how researchers can track political ideology through brain activity. I found it especially interesting how three specific parts of the brain determine individualism, conservatism, and radicalism.

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This makes a lot of sense as conservatives are more for keeping things the way they have been, preventing the positive negative outcomes of change and liberals want change, which could advance positive outcomes