quote: "What we saw instead was a network of emotion circuits lighting up, including circuits hypothesized to be involved in regulating emotion, and circuits known to be involved in resolving conflicts," he added.
Once the partisans had come to conclusions that fit their underlying beliefs - essentially finding ways to ignore information that could not be rationally discounted - the brain circuits that mediate negative emotions like sadness and disgust were turned off, while the circuits involved in behavior reward were strongly activated, a process much like that seen when addicts get a dose of a drug, Westen said.
"None of the circuits involved in conscious reasoning were particularly engaged. It appears as if partisans twirl the cognitive kaleidoscope until they get the conclusions they want, and then they get massively reinforced for it," the researcher noted.
posted
I'm rather skeptical of these fMRI studies. Place me in the machine and ask me questions, look this lights up! Wooo.
What are we actually learning here? Or are we just drawing correlations without knowing enough to say what if anything it means.
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posted
I'm not completely sure. All I know is that this is a legitimate study. It was mentioned in my psych class and I thought people here would appreciate it.
Posts: 1789 | Registered: Jul 2003
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posted
Sounds plausible to me. How many people *really* think? The mind is a natural filter of information so we can focus on tasks (just like how the ear can tune out the noises in a crowd and listen to one person but a computer can't). Few people pay much attention to what is being filtered out.
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posted
The study doesn't prove (or even suggest) the statement "there's no such this as nonpartisan." It seems to have been done on people who identified strongly in one way another, not on independants who would consider themselves nonpartisan.
The results of the study suggest something more along the lines of "There's no such thing as an unbiased partisan" which is notably different.
posted
Yup, was just going to say the same thing, Enigmatic.
From the link:
quote:A new study using functional brain imaging confirms what pollsters and consultants have believed for years - debates and facts don't really sway the partisan opinions of hard-core Democrats or Republicans.
Scientists at Emory University studied a group of committed Democrats and Republicans during the three months before the 2004 presidential election.
posted
There was a longer article in the Washington Post a day or so ago about this stuff being presented at a conference in CA. I was interested more in the way that they could detect when people ignored the evidence against their favored candidates/parties/positions but would hone in on the stuff that was against the candidates/parties/positions they didn't like. Even when the evidence was the same. It's like the brain has a filter connected to an on/off switch.
There was something in there about GOP and racism too, but I'd really want to see what the study was really saying rather than rely on a press account.
The press is just not very good at explaining social psychology experimental results.
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