Conservatives resistant to change

Exploring the neurobiology of politics, scientists have found that liberals tolerate ambiguity and conflict better than conservatives because of how their brains work.

Scientists at New York University and UCLA showed through a simple experiment to be reported Monday in the journal Nature Neuroscience that political orientation is related to differences in how the brain processes information.

Previous psychological studies have found that conservatives tend to be more structured and persistent in their judgments whereas liberals are more open to new experiences. The latest study found those traits are not confined to political situations but also influence everyday decisions.

The results showed "there are two cognitive styles -- a liberal style and a conservative style," said UCLA neurologist Dr. Marco Iacoboni, who was not connected to the latest research. ...

Frank J. Sulloway, a researcher at UC Berkeley's Institute of Personality and Social Research who was not connected to the study, said results "provided an elegant demonstration that individual differences on a conservative-liberal dimension are strongly related to brain activity." ...

Sulloway said the results could explain why President Bush demonstrates a single-minded commitment to the Iraq war and Sen. John F. Kerry, the liberal Massachusetts Democrat who opposed Bush in the 2004 presidential race, was accused of being a flip-flopper for changing his mind about the conflict.

Based on the results, he said, liberals could be expected to more readily accept new social, scientific or religious ideas.Exploring the neurobiology of politics, scientists have found that liberals tolerate ambiguity and conflict better than conservatives because of how their brains work.

Scientists at New York University and UCLA showed through a simple experiment to be reported Monday in the journal Nature Neuroscience that political orientation is related to differences in how the brain processes information.

Previous psychological studies have found that conservatives tend to be more structured and persistent in their judgments whereas liberals are more open to new experiences. The latest study found those traits are not confined to political situations but also influence everyday decisions.

The results showed "there are two cognitive styles -- a liberal style and a conservative style," said UCLA neurologist Dr. Marco Iacoboni, who was not connected to the latest research. ...

Frank J. Sulloway, a researcher at UC Berkeley's Institute of Personality and Social Research who was not connected to the study, said results "provided an elegant demonstration that individual differences on a conservative-liberal dimension are strongly related to brain activity." ...

Sulloway said the results could explain why President Bush demonstrates a single-minded commitment to the Iraq war and Sen. John F. Kerry, the liberal Massachusetts Democrat who opposed Bush in the 2004 presidential race, was accused of being a flip-flopper for changing his mind about the conflict.

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

"There is ample data from the history of science showing that social and political liberals indeed do tend to support major revolutions in science," said Sulloway, who has written about the history of science and has studied behavioral differences between conservatives and liberals.

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.

Political orientation, he noted, occurs along a spectrum, and positions on specific issues, such as taxes, are influenced by many factors, including education and wealth. Some liberals oppose higher taxes and some conservatives favor abortion rights.

http://www.latimes.com/news/science/...la-home-center


by definition conservative implies a resistance to change anyway.


Such staunch resistance to growing new ideas in the face of constant change is bordering on mental illness..

let us for the sake of argument, say that all people with conservative values are evil.
Plato claimed that which we call evil is merely ignorance and the militant willful ignorance displayed by those resistant to expand their ideas in any way is no doubt worthy of such a title in this world of segmentation.

They are moderately impaired neurotics who have made a 'pact with the devil' if you will.

They have sold their soul to to alleviate the insane fear and anxiety forced upon them by the Pseudo community in which their semi comatose cycle continues.
This is a society where everyone pretends to have a bonhomie with one another, covering up their differences, by acting as if the differences do not exist, hypothetically speaking of course.

They maintain a certain world view out of fear of not fitting in when in order to grow psychologically a productive world view must be constantly updated and revised as people are exposed to new data. If the starting viewpoint is narrow, misleading and outdated then any conclusions drawn under that view are going to be inaccurate.

In order for true progress to be made, people must set aside this prejudice and revise the world view consistently

Hypothetically speaking, these suckers of Satan's cock refuse genuine self-examination, they get angry and upset when personally challenged by others, and they are incapable of total honesty to oneself and or others.

One might say they are demoniacally possessed schizophrenics who haven't yet finished evolving past the missing link, if one were so inclined.