Liberal vs. Conservative: A Neuroscientific Analysis with Gail Saltz | Big Think

Liberal vs. Conservative: A Neuroscientific Analysis with Gail Saltz
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What the difference in brain structure between liberals and conservatives? And where do our political convictions come from: rational deliberation, or biological determinism?
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GAIL SALTZ:

Dr. Gail Saltz is a bestselling author of numerous books and the go-to expert on a variety of important psychological issues. She is Chair of the 92nd Street Y "7 Days of Genius Advisory Committee" and Consultant and Event Moderator for the Clinton Foundation's Health Matters Initiative. Dr. Saltz is an Associate Professor of Psychiatry at the NY Presbyterian Hospital Weill-Cornell School of medicine, a psychoanalyst with the New York Psychoanalytic Institute, and has a private practice in Manhattan.  
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TRANSCRIPT:

Gail Saltz: So I think what’s really fascinating is that there have been a number of recent studies looking at brain structural differences between liberals and conservatives. And what’s been found in several studies is that liberals tend to have a larger anterior cingulate gyrus. That is an area that is responsible for taking in new information and that impact of the new information on decision making or choices. Conservatives tended on the whole to have a larger right amygdala. Amygdala being a deeper brain structure that processes more emotional information - specifically fear based information. So it’s really responsible for the flight or fright response. And this isn’t everybody. It’s not black and white and of course then, you know, what about all of the people in the middle? But basically the study showed that if you just based it on brain structural size different you could predict who would be a conservative and who would be a liberal with frequency of 71.6 percent.

71.6 percent is a pretty high ability to predict who is a conservative and who is a liberal just from brain structure. When you look at what your parents were in terms of predicting what you might be in terms of conservative versus liberal, that enabled you to predict in studies at a rate of 69.5 percent. So very close. Not quite as good and why is that interesting? It’s because the brain is plastic. So the question as to whether you have a brain structure to start with that informs whether you will be a liberal or conservative or whether the formation of certain thoughts from your parents for example shapes your brain structure. Because the brain is plastic and ever changing, particularly in youth. So does thinking certain thoughts or predominantly let’s say utilizing your right amygdala versus your anterior cingulate gyrus inform the growth of those areas and therefore help you predict later who is liberal and who is conservative.

So in terms of interpreting the meaning of different sized structures for a liberal versus a conservative I think you have to look at what that area is predominantly responsible for. So for instance for conservatives if you’re right amygdala is enlarged and that’s the fear processing area you would expect maybe choices or decisions or character and personality to be more informed by a response to a fearful situation. So for example conservatives in fact in personality studies do tend to rate higher in areas of stability, loyalty, not liking change, being more religiously involved in terms of decision making, having that rate higher for them in making certain choices. And if you look at liberals from a personality character standpoint you’re going to find stronger ratings in terms of liking change wanting to actually base decision making on new information, on science information. And so those differences are not surprising in light of these brain structural differences.

Being a liberal or being a conservative really is not black and white. It’s really a bell shaped curve where, you know, someone who considers themselves conservative may be far less conservative so to speak than someone else who still calls themselves a conservative. And that bell shaped curve continues all the way through where in the middle there may be a large group that calls themselves independents.

What we don’t know is whether that has to do with differences in brain structure and so would we see in independents, no one’s does that study to say oh, independents don’t show any differences in brain structure or any differences in say risk taking reaction. So we don’t know for sure what that means but I think it’s fair to say that even when we looked a...

[dougaduncan]

This also speaks to how a system of education can be used to increase open-mindedness or close-mindedness. Moving away from creating informed world citizens to a system that creates employees may have contributed to these differences.

[joejohnson]

Is anyone watching this during covid-19 times to try to figure out wtf is wrong with our country?

[ratboii]

Professor: this isn't _everyone_
Everyone: phew... it doesn't apply to me

[jupiterisaak]

I’ve noticed the problem across the political spectrum seems to be a lack of nuance ever since the rise of social media especially Twitter.

[nicholasschroeder]

I grew up in a conservative house, neighborhood, community, and had all conservative friends. I gradually had to give them all up and/or was rejected because I became increasingly liberal. I DO think it's from the brain: I'm just unusually open to new experiences and people, and I've always done risky things. I do creative work. Traditional ways bore or exasperate me. It's how I'm wired. It was painful, though, losing all that community. Wish I'd understood this earlier.

[theprousteffect]

I consider myself a liberal, but I still find it difficult to talk to many liberals. Having an intellectually honest conversation about any controversial issue with someone on either extreme end of the political spectrum is damn near impossible and requires the patience of a buddhist monk.

[dickhamilton]

I don't recognise this American thing of talking about Liberals and Conservatives (with Caps) as complete irreconcilable opposites. Uncapitalized, liberal and conservative are labels you attach to a view or an opinion, not a person. Most people are a mixture of liberal and conservative, depending on the topic.

[danielsutter]

“Some people are able to absorb new information, process it, and adjust their view of the world based on what they’ve learned. Other people have lizard brains.”

I feel that’s what she really wanted to say

[bettercallsaal]

Even though this makes a lot of sense and is most likely a good scientific look at the brain functions of liberals vs conservatives, it would have been nice to have specific studies and information cited. It is really hard to make sure information is accurate if it is not straight from the horse's mouth. Without cited evidence, anyone can dispute it, and the arguments won't always be logical.

[IExpectedBSJustNotThisMuchBS]

This is why fear mongering is so effective among those who try to influence people on the right. It would be particularly effective against an other (scapegoats) because it plays on loyalty to the group.

[TheLordboki]

My favorite quote from Warhammer kinda sums it up:

"An open mind is like a fortress with its gates unbarred and unguarded."

Being open-minded is good, up until the point bad ideas entrench themselves in your head. If that happens, you are no longer open-minded. Being close-minded protects you from bad ideas and offers stability of mind, focus and safety. However, lack of change leads to stagnation. We don't want that.

Balance the two, like all things.

[Bongoagain]

I think if you stop at the 6:00 minute mark on the video she explains that some people hear you differently based on being a liberal or conservative. I thought that was insightful considering what we have gone through since March.

[oshenw]

95 dislikes...i wonder what group of people refused to accept this new information

[illuminati_watching]

Why is everyone in the comments so but hurt? They were vary fair in this video and tried to keep all bias out.

[uncleanunicorn]

Some deeply religious people will say that even if they were presented with incontrovertible evidence falsifying their beliefs, then they hope their faith would remain strong enough to not be changed by evidence. This could go along way towards explaining that reaction.

[tom-kzpb]

On Facebook, there was one woman where I was not sure who she even was, but she seemed particularly awful, spouting conspiracy theories, covid misinformation, right-wing partisan liberal-bashing. Then I discovered to my shock that she had been a secretary where I had worked for many years, one of the nicest people, that I had liked quite well..

I was not sure if I should take it as a sign that there is hope, or as a sign that there is no hope.

It must be in a small way similar to how a parent must feel when a good kid falls in with a bad crowd, and starts picking up bad habits, surly attitudes, and so on.

A lot of people in this world are very nice and polite, never presenting any noticeable problem, in a certain context, *if* you fit into their mold on all key aspects. But if they are narrow on a particular subject, be it race, or religion, or sexual orientation, or politics, and if you fall outside of their mold on any key area, then you see an ugly side that you otherwise would never see.

A lot of people are better at heart than their politics. Their politics reflect not so much who they are, but what they have been turned into. If you inject snake venom into someone's veins, it will have an inevitable effect. Similarly, when politicians and their propaganda machines start injecting a steady diet of twisted information, intended to rile people up, make them feel angry, make them suspicious, make them feel wronged, directing their resentment by vilifying scapegoats, this unfortunately works. It has an effect and it changes people for the worse. The only way this will stop is if those who resort to such tactics start getting punished at the voting booths for it, until it no longer appears to be a winning strategy.

[majorthsmcgee]

Change can be a good thing. Change can also be a bad thing. The best thing to do is balance openness to change with skepticism of it.


Yours sincerely
Boring centrist

[angelic]

I think what we need to take home from this is that all humans have an inherent bias when it comes to information and values, and to get out of the gridlock we are experiencing in many nations politics, we have to focus purely on the facts and being willing to experiment to find solutions outside of what we intrinsically feel is right.
It takes a principled mind to admit to yourself that I may not be the best judge of what the right way forward is on a particular issue. But we need some kind of neutral ground.

[argishtistepanian]

She is really going out of her way not to insult anyones intelligence or portray them as black and white. anyone who is offended is just unreachably stubborn and petty

Some of the comments however are genuinely very rude that part is reasonable

[richardmycroft]

What I find interesting is the idea that is very prevalent in the US that one should never change one's mind about anything. As I've grown older I've become more liberal as I realized that so much of what I had been taught by my church was pure junk.