Dr Leor Zmigrod has made a discovery, the politics a person associated with is correlated to biological factors. She has found that the brain structures of a person differ based on the types of politics a person follows and if their thinking is "flexible" or "rigid". For example, people with conservative beliefs have a larger amygdala, when compared to people with liberal ideologies. The amygdala being the part of the brain that processes fear and disgust.
On a genetic level, it was found that people who are more cognitively flexible, have genetic markers that indicate greater amounts of dopamine in their prefrontal cortex, and less in the striatal regions of the brain. Dopamine has been known to be a genetic factor in personality, like extraversion traits.
This can be a scary concept, as biological determinations for politics take away from hope that people can adapt their beliefs, as well as fear of interfering with a person's genetics/brain composition in order to change beliefs. These findings also emphasize how some individuals are more susceptible to political influences like propaganda.
Dr Zmigrod mentions that she plans to do a longitudinal study, to determine if the brain's structure influences politics, or if politics influences the makeup of the brain later in life.
This is a really interesting topic. It’s surprising to think that brain structure and genetics might play a role in political beliefs. The connection between dopamine and personality traits also adds another layer to how complex this is. I’m curious to see what future research will show about how politics and the brain influence each other.
ReplyDeleteIt's a scary thought to realize that it's possible people are predestined genetically to think a certain kind of way. As younger generations are being brought up, is it possible that the differences in political thought will continue to divide until the point that being a moderate no longer exists? All in all, I think this was a very interesting topic to write about and was very thought provoking!
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