Some people’s brains are better suited to introspection than others -
A specific region of the brain appears to be larger in individuals who are good at turning their thoughts inward and reflecting upon their decisions, according to new research published in the journal Science. This act of introspection -- or "thinking about your thinking" -- is a key aspect of human consciousness, though scientists have noted plenty of variation in peoples' abilities to introspect.1
Neuroscientist Stephen Fleming and a team of UK researchers have found that people with more gray and white matter microstructures in a particular area of the prefrontal cortex tended to be more introspective, which is to say, better at evaluating their own performance.
Conservatives are generally not introspective.
They tend to have difficulty admitting when they make mistakes, they seem oblivious to their own behavior, and the consequences of it, and tend to blame others.
Case and point: The enormous debt the US is struggling with now was created when the Conservatives were in control of the Congress and the White House. Yet they cannot admit this, and instead, blame the new Congress and White House.
There is widespread agreement that the current economic crisis has been brought about by poor leadership and greed.
In a recent Globe & Mail newspaper article, Professor Henry Mintzberg, of McGill University in Montreal, suggests that much of the blame for economic failure can be tied directly to the failure of management education.
Professor Mintzberg goes on to point out that lack of introspection in corporate America prevents leaders from learning from their own mistakes.2
To this day former President George W Bush has never admitted he did anything wrong.
Was his failure as a leader due to having a smaller prefrontal cortex that blocked him from being introspective?
Quick to anger -
The ventral area of the prefrontal cortex is known to be crucial for constraining impulsive outbursts. Persons with a predisposition to anger and aggression have been found to have decreased activity in this brain area.
In August of 2004, Darin Dougherty, M.D., an assistant professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School, submitted a study, reported in the Vol. 61 No. 8, of the Archives of General Psychiatry.3
In this study, when the subjects started getting angry, blood flow increases in the left ventromedial prefrontal cortex were significantly greater in the healthy control subjects than in the subjects who were prone to anger.
Attaching emotional content to logistical situations is a behavior that is often exhibited by Conservatives.
If you watch Rush Limbaugh or Sean Hannity, or Ann Coulter, you will see that they repeatedly attach emotional content to logistical behavior. And, the emotion they attach most often is anger.
Do these people have decreased brain activity? Is the blood just not flowing to their brains?
Impaired ability -
Since the 1980s, scientists have correlated damage to the prefrontal cortex with psychopathic behavior and the inability to make morally and socially acceptable decisions.
Researchers at the University of Sweden have found the prefrontal cortex to be precisely the area of the brain that is impaired in murderers, rapists, and other violent criminals who repeatedly re-offend. At the November 1999 annual meeting of the Society for Neuroscience, Asa Bergvall and her colleagues presented findings on their study of violent offenders.4
The brains of the violent offenders performed normally in every task except the one, which taps prefrontal function, "In that," says Bergvall, "It was as if they were retarded."
They had an impaired ability to shift their attention in order to view the world in a different way – a function linked to the lateral prefrontal cortex.
Former president George W Bush was often called retarded, because of his impaired ability to shift his view of the world.
But he was no violent criminal.
Neurology professor Dr. Antonio Damasio and colleagues at the University of Iowa College of Medicine reported on two cases of early brain damage to the prefrontal cortex. As adults, both patients showed an almost total lack of guilt.5
University of Southern California psychopathologist Adrian Raine has documented prefrontal damage in people with Antisocial Personality Disorder, which is characterized by irresponsibility and deceitfulness, lack of emotional depth and remorse.6
His article in the Archives of General Psychiatry, February 1, 2000 stated that, "The antisocial men actually had 11-14% less brain tissue volume in their prefrontal cortexes, compared to normal males – a deficit of about two teaspoons' worth."
What if George W. Bush has 5-6% less brain tissue volume in his prefrontal cortexes?
His presidency was certainly characterized by irresponsibility, deceitfulness, and lack of remorse.
Was this because he was one teaspoon short of a full brain?
The chicken or the egg -
Conservatives are called Conservatives because they share similar beliefs. Consequently, they exhibit similar behaviors.
Are their beliefs and behaviors similar because they lack the ability for introspection?
Do people become Conservatives because they have smaller prefrontal cortexes?
1 - http://www.sciencedaily.com/... Brain Matter Linked to Introspective Thoughts: Structure of Prefrontal Cortex Helps Humans Think About One's Own Thinking
2 - http://www.theglobeandmail.com/...
3 - http://archpsyc.ama-assn.org/...
4 - http://www.fi.edu/...
5 - http://www.crimetimes.org/...
6 - http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/...
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