Imaging Shows the Brain Drives Political Divides

By Megan Brooks

The study revealed evidence of “neural polarization” ― activity in the brain that differs between people who hold liberal vs conservative political views, the researchers report. Neural polarization intensified when videos included risk-related and moral-emotional language, highlighting content most likely to drive interpretations between conservatives and liberals, they note. For a given individual, the closer that brain activity resembled that of the “average conservative” or “average liberal,” the more likely the person was to adopt that group’s position after watching the videos. Read HERE.