11 September 2007

Conservatives brain damaged

according to new study by real scientists.

Based on the results, he said, liberals could be expected to more readily accept new social, scientific or religious ideas.

That's why Kerry was perceived as a flip-flopper. In reality he's pre-programmed to change with the wind.

Lead author David Amodio, an assistant professor of psychology at New York University, cautioned that the study looked at a narrow range of human behavior and that it would be a mistake to conclude that one political orientation was better. The tendency of conservatives to block distracting information could be a good thing depending on the situation, he said.

It "could be a good thing" in some situations, but he can't imagine any. According to the article they didn't look at the whole range of political beliefs - they took only the "very liberal" and "very conservative". If the design has any merit, then I'd be interested in how someone from the center (where I, believe it or not, place myself) would have performed. I also wonder if they controlled for IQ at all, since performance on the task they described seems likely to be affected by intelligence more so than political ideology.

I'm sure they thought of that, though. I don't think there could be any bias involved in a study by professors at New York University or UCLA.
(via /.)

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