Science Forums 2

[CraigD]

For many reasons, I don’t believe that membership in a political party correlates strongly with detectable brain features, including the lateralization of brain function (“left or right brained-ness”).

One is that, as the linked wikipedia article summarizes, brain lateralization correlates only weakly to the traits commonly assigned to it by popular psychology authors and enthusiasts. The determination of it by means other than brain imaging or selective anesthesia, when performed by anyone I’ve ever witnessed attempting to do so, appear to me to be so prone to observer bias as to be worse than worthless. My anecdotal experience is that, when interviewed in circumstances such as by social work graduate students who have employed me as a statistician, I’m always determined to be strongly left-brained. When interviewed by social work graduate students who I meet during activities such as singing and playing in a coffee house, I’m always determine to be strongly right-brained.

Another is that, within my professional cohort of computer programmers and managers, I find right-wing political views to be more common among the presumably more language-oriented, right-brained managers than among the presumably more left-brained programmers and technicians, which, if I understand HBond’s argument correctly, is the precise opposite of what he predicts.

Note that I’m not here presenting more than anecdotal evidence. HBond, if you have some data supporting your claim, substantiated by reliable determinations of brain lateralization, please post it. Without evidence, I’m more strongly convinced of my own conclusion that political ideology are either unrelated brain lateralization, or correlate weakly in the opposite sense of your hypothesis, than I am of your hypothesis, which appears to be supported only by your own personal argument and anecdotes.

Originally Posted by questor

Your statement,
''If participants in this discussion intend to seriously explore possible neurological factors that influence political views and behavior, I suggest they avoid political specifics, such as examining and endorsing 2008 US presidential candidates''. I don't quite understand this statement.

My suggestion is intended to encourage objective distancing of participants in this thread from current political issues, which tend to emotionally excite and cognitively impair, from neuroscience, which requires emotional calm and cognitive objectivity. This is a common suggestion concerning scientific and medical issues, typified by such ethics as the commonplace avoidance by medical clinicians of performing diagnosis or therapy on family members or others for whom they have a strong positive or negative emotional attachment.