"Can neuroscience provide evidence for a liberal and conservative thinking style?
It may seem like a stretch to say that one could predict whether you lean left or right by looking at a brain scan—no questions asked, no opinions voiced—purely based on your neuroanatomy. However, this might not be too far from reality—at least insofar as predicting thinking style, which has been shown to be somewhat distinct based on party association.
Does brain structure determine your beliefs, or do your beliefs change your brain structure? What about those who switch parties at some point? How do they fit in to this model? We’ll be discussing all of this. It’s a complicated issue with lots of variables in play, so we’re going to take a pretty deep look into this topic from all angles, so we can draw the most accurate conclusions."
Wherein I attempt to take fair look at the neuroscientific evidence that appears to suggest that there is a separate and distinct liberal and conservative thinking style. However, it's nowhere near that simple!
Read the rest over at The Intersection where I am guest posting today!
Beyond that, it tells us nothing. It's not even a useful approximation beyond indicating that people's brains don't operate in a uniform fashion.
Sorry, but that's not even approximately true. It's a bias that is unwarranted.
It would be much more accurate to argue that, depending on the issue, some people will tend to respond more emotionally, while others may respond from a more evidence-based perspective. Anything more than that is over-reaching and cannot be confirmed by any claims to data.