Busting Down The Open Door
Study Ties Political Leanings to Hidden Biases (Shankar Vedantam, Washington Post)
Emory University psychologist Drew Westen put self-identified Democratic and Republican partisans in brain scanners and asked them to evaluate negative information about various candidates. Both groups were quick to spot inconsistency and hypocrisy -- but only in candidates they opposed.
When presented with negative information about the candidates they liked, partisans of all stripes found ways to discount it, Westen said. When the unpalatable information was rejected, furthermore, the brain scans showed that volunteers gave themselves feel-good pats -- the scans showed that "reward centers" in volunteers' brains were activated.
Partisans are partisan.
Some political philosophy prof -- I think it was George Carey -- once said something to the effect that contemporary social scientists frequently use axes to bust through open doors. But, it's kind of fun nonetheless.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 01/30/06 22:23 | American Politics | Technorati
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