#republican brain

[trmpt]

2012–March The anti-truth, anti-reality, anti-science hive mind of the GOP. Perhaps Trump is just the inevitable product of it.

[monohedron]

[underpaidgenius]

The Republican Brain

Paul Krugman points out what cognitive research has shown, that denial of scientific facts -- and their implications -- is strongly correlated with an authoritarian mindset, one that many far right republicans exhibit.

Grand Old Planet - Paul Krugman

What accounts for this pattern of denial? Earlier this year, the science writer Chris Mooney published “The Republican Brain,” which was not, as you might think, a partisan screed. It was, instead, a survey of the now-extensive research linking political views to personality types. As Mr. Mooney showed, modern American conservatism is highly correlated with authoritarian inclinations — and authoritarians are strongly inclined to reject any evidence contradicting their prior beliefs. Today’s Republicans cocoon themselves in an alternate reality defined by Fox News, Rush Limbaugh and The Wall Street Journal’s editorial page, and only on rare occasions — like on election night — encounter any hint that what they believe might not be true.

And, no, it’s not symmetric. Liberals, being human, often give in to wishful thinking — but not in the same systematic, all-encompassing way.

[...]

You may have read about the recent study from the Congressional Research Service finding no empirical support for the dogma that cutting taxes on the wealthy leads to higher economic growth. How did Republicans respond? By suppressing the report. On economics, as in hard science, modern conservatives don’t want to hear anything challenging their preconceptions — and they don’t want anyone else to hear about it, either.

[theragblog-blog-blog]

Author Chris Mooney surgically dissects the "Republican Brain," tapping impressive new scientific research ranging from social psychology and cognitive neuroscience to genetics. According to Mooney, "Political conservatives seem to be very different from political liberals at the level of psychology and personality." Conservatives "view the world in black and white," Mooney said. "They think that there's only two sides, and that they're on the right side." Mooney is the author of "The Republican Brain: The Science of Why They Deny Science -- and Reality." This article includes a podcast of Thorne Dreyer's hour-long interview with Mooney on Rag Radio.

[mysticpolitics]

Conservative Science: Diagnosing the Republican Brain

'We all know that many American conservatives have issues with Charles Darwin, and the theory of evolution. But Albert Einstein, and the theory of relativity?'

Read more- Conservative Science: Diagnosing the Republican Brain

[genelogic]

Chris Mooney on the Republican Brain: read the article and then check out his new book.

Conservapedia really captures just about everything wrong with right-wing thinking:

"Relativity has been met with much resistance in the scientific world," declares Conservapedia. "To date, a Nobel Prize has never been awarded for Relativity." The site goes on to catalogue the "political aspects of relativity," charging that some liberals have "extrapolated the theory" to favor their agendas. That includes President Barack Obama, who (it is claimed) helped publish an article applying relativity in the legal sphere while attending Harvard Law School in the late 1980s.

[itsokaytobesmart]

New study tracks how conservatives have lost faith in science

The graph you're looking at shows a striking trend. Over the past several decades, self-reported conservatives have lost faith and confidence in the scientific community, while moderates and liberals have remained relatively unchanged. This comes from a new study by Gordon Gauchet of UNC, drawing on 36 years of polling done involving tens of thousands of Americans in the General Social Survey.

Both frequent churchgoers and conservatives reported a more than 25% drop since 1974 when it came to faith in science (namely climate and evolution). It doesn't paint the whole community that way, but the trend is clear. So what's going on?

I've linked to Chris Mooney's new book The Republican Brain before. I've now read it. As uncomfortable as it seems, a body of recent research says that there are not only differences in how conservative brains develop in the context of family and society ("nurture"), but likely also in how they are formed ("nature"). The differences seem amplified in conservatives as they become more educated. How can this be?

Chris Mooney's blog and book detail these studies, as well as their shortcomings. He also details areas where liberals are guilty of similar bias in reasoning (like vaccines).

We are forced now to ask whether conservative brains and liberal brains, as they exist in society, are equally receptive to facts and equally receptive to changing their minds based upon them. It appears that might not be the case.

I encourage everyone to browse Chris's blog and read his book. We won't find solutions to our political divide in either the nature or nurture hypotheses, but rather somewhere in the middle. What's clear is that facts are not holding equal weight in both brains.

(via Cosmic Log)