Biological Basis for Political Orientation Reveals Much About It

Cur­rent Biol­ogy:

The amyg­dala has many func­tions, includ­ing fear pro­cess­ing. Indi­vid­u­als with a large amyg­dala are more sen­si­tive to fear, which, taken together with our findings, might­sug­gest the testable hypoth­e­sis that indi­vid­u­als with larger amyg­dala are more inclined to inte­grate con­ser­v­a­tive views into their belief sys­tem. Sim­i­larly, it is strik­ing that con­ser­v­a­tives are more sen­si­tive to dis­gust, and the insula is involved in the feel­ing of dis­gust. On the other hand, ourfinding of an asso­ci­a­tion between ante­rior cin­gu­late cor­texvol­ume and polit­i­cal atti­tudes may be linked with tol­er­ance to uncer­tainty. One of the func­tions of the ante­rior cin­gu­late cor­tex is to mon­i­tor uncer­tainty and conflicts. Thus, it is con­ceiv­able that indi­vid­u­als with a larger ACC have a higher capac­ity to tol­er­ate uncer­tainty and conflicts,allowing them to accept more lib­eral views

17 May 2011 – 4:45 pm | By Benjamin Daniels | Posted in Politics | Comments (170)