Democrats and Republicans Both Adept at Ignoring Facts, Study Finds

min0 lee · 04-21-2008, 08:01 PM

Democrats and Republicans Both Adept at Ignoring Facts, Study Finds | LiveScience

Quote:

Democrats and Republicans alike are adept at making decisions without letting the facts get in the way, a new study shows.
And they get quite a rush from ignoring information that's contrary to their point of view.
Researchers asked staunch party members from both sides to evaluate information that threatened their preferred candidate prior to the 2004 Presidential election. The subjects' brains were monitored while they pondered.
The results were announced today.
"We did not see any increased activation of the parts of the brain normally engaged during reasoning," said Drew Westen, director of clinical psychology at Emory University. "What we saw instead was a network of emotion circuits lighting up, including circuits hypothesized to be involved in regulating emotion, and circuits known to be involved in resolving conflicts."

kiko · 04-21-2008, 08:34 PM

I'm not surprised. Fanatics are like that.

Big Smoothy · 04-22-2008, 01:10 AM

I took a course on elections in University.

One study found that if people that claim to be Demos and Repubs see video footage of a man or women being interviewed, or just giving a speech that they have never, never, seen nor know before, they are often biased after they see the (D) or (R) behind the person's name on the screen.

We all have biases. But it's important not to automatically exclude info contrary to what we think or believe.

And again, both parties are very, very, similar.

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04-21-2008, 08:34 PM	#2
kiko Registered User Join Date: Sep 2007 Posts: 373	I'm not surprised. Fanatics are like that.

04-22-2008, 01:10 AM	#3
Big Smoothy Windy City Elite Member Join Date: Jan 2004 Location: Chicago Posts: 3,266	I took a course on elections in University. One study found that if people that claim to be Demos and Repubs see video footage of a man or women being interviewed, or just giving a speech that they have never, never, seen nor know before, they are often biased after they see the (D) or (R) behind the person's name on the screen. We all have biases. But it's important not to automatically exclude info contrary to what we think or believe. And again, both parties are very, very, similar.