Thursday, January 26, 2006

And What Was Their First Clue?

Democrats and Republicans both adept at ignoring facts, brain scans show

I guess we could also include Liberals, Conservatives, NDPers, Greens, Heritage, and oh, everybody in politics, eh?

Democrats and Republicans alike are adept at making decisions without letting the facts get in the way, a new study shows.

As my friend, Howlin' Hobbit says, "No shit, Sherlock!"

And they get quite a rush from ignoring information that's contrary to their point of view.

(...)

Notably absent were any increases in activation of the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, the part of the brain most associated with reasoning.

I wonder if they tested the area of the brain that differentiates between telling the truth and telling a lie... Omigoddess, what am I saying? These are politicians we're talking about -- for them, there is no differentiation!

"The result is that partisan beliefs are calcified, and the person (read: politician) can learn very little from new data," Westen said.

Well, I guess that explains everything...

2 Comments:

Blogger M. B. Dezotell said...

Funny, that's the same way they describe sociopaths.

"You don't have to be a sociopath to be in politics, but it pays better than most jobs, and no-one can tell the difference anyway."

Thursday, January 26, 2006 7:15:00 PM  
Blogger Chimera said...

!ROTFLMAO!

Seriously, Dez (still laughing...that was funny), there was a study done a few years ago -- wish I could remember who did it -- which showed that the "best" (read: most effective) politicians were also probably sex addicts with high libidoes. I think it was done about the same time Clinton was trying unsuccessfully to redefine that which constituted sexual activity. And I've still got a copy of Larry Flynt's special edition whereby he um, exposed, the sexual hypocrisy of several of the leading congressmen and senators -- on both sides of the political spectrum.

Given all that, methinks that comparing political activity to prostitution is giving prostitution a bad name...

Thursday, January 26, 2006 9:20:00 PM  

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