In 2004, the researchers recruited 30 adult men who described themselves as committed Republicans or Democrats. The men, half of them supporters of President Bush and the other half backers of Senator John Kerry, earned $50 to sit in an M.R.I. machine and consider several statements in quick succession.
The first was a quote attributed to one of the two candidates: either a remark by Mr. Bush in support of Kenneth L. Lay, the former Enron chief, before he was indicted, or a statement by Mr. Kerry that Social Security should be overhauled. Moments later, the participants read a remark that showed the candidate reversing his position. The quotes were doctored for maximum effect but presented as factual.
The Republicans in the study judged Mr. Kerry as harshly as the Democrats judged Mr. Bush. But each group let its own candidate off the hook.
After the participants read the contradictory comment, the researchers measured increased activity in several areas of the brain. They included a region involved in regulating negative emotions and another called the cingulate, which activates when the brain makes judgments about forgiveness, among other things. Also, a spike appeared in several areas known to be active when people feel relieved or rewarded. The “cold reasoning” regions of the cortex were relatively quiet.
…It is possible to override these biases, Dr. Westen said, “but you have to engage in ruthless self reflection, to say, ‘All right, I know what I want to believe, but I have to be honest.’ “
…That might be a lot of excerpting. I plead insanity.
This story suggests dozens of interesting angles, and that includes the pog-worthy fad for weakly-supported fMRI studies. I’ll focus on just one. It makes a bit more sense why people swarm to outlets of mean-spirited political humor, quality examples of which include Goldstein and Tbogg Brad at Sadly, No!, and why red meat-dishing sites in general dominate the internet. We’re rats pushing the morphine lever.
It goes without saying that this isn’t news to anybody in the political consulting class, who’ve been appealing to their supporters’ unconscious prejudices since pretty much ever.
***Update***
By popular demand I’ll let purveyors of mean-spirited political humor nominate themselves.
Rusty Shackleford
Democrat: “Why did you vote for Bush?”
Republican: “The Devil made me do it.”
Lines
Political Morphine for John Cole:
Cindy Sheehan is a loon
George Galloway is a liar
Liberals hate the military
Now run along and push your levers, John.
The Other Steve
Not surprised at all.
Which is why the Kitty Bashing question is so funny.
Don Surber
I agree wholeheartedly with the column. Comments prove it
demimondian
Nonsense, Don! You’re my political opponent, so *you must be wrong*! ;)
charliedontsurf10
Ya mean we don’t always heed the call of the better angels of our nature?
Imagine that.
srv
My cingulate forgives all you ignorant republicans and democrats.
tb
This is nothing. There were still plenty of rational reasons to support Kerry even if he did contradict himself. The suggestion that political choices are just bias is offensive.
Zifnab
Lines, don’t be a little dick.
It at least explains the “Red State/Blue State” mentality. I heard Fred Barnes on the Daily Show plugging his book, and when Stewart asked Barnes about those outside the Democrat/Republican political circle jerk Barnes pretty much claimed that such people did not exist. You’re either Red or Blue, Liberal or Conservative, Republican or Democrat, and those outside of that did not matter.
Herd mentality. It’s sad really.
Otto Man
Wait… Goldstein is supposed to be funny?
Lines
Zifnab, how is it being a dick? The commentary on every Galloway rant or Sheehan comedy is exactly the same, and that is for the liberals to go “huh?” which John cackles with glee over his favorite topics. When there is too much evidence mounting up about Bush Administration corruption, we can count on a Sheehan/Galloway/Liberals hate the military type post to just get everyone fired up.
srv
Man, I thought he was another DougJ personality.
Jeff G
I don’t do “mean-spirited” political humor as a rule. In fact my site is completely different in aims from Tbogg’s.
And if I were you, I’d try running your thesis through the very fact that John has invited you to post here.
Having said that, I will say that I howled aloud at both srv and ottoman’s comments. Laughed and laughed in that self-deprecating way we true “moderates” do in order to prove just how balanced we are, and avoid building echo chamber sites.
Yes. How I laughed.
ThomasD
Color me un-impressed. That contradictory information, specifically massaged for maximum effect, would elicit an emotional response is hardly earth shattering news. That politics are not beyond the realm of emotion is no more surprising. The most enlightening aspect of the results is that no difference was noted between the study groups. Proving that both groups are actually human. I hope none of the researchers were pinning their PhD. hopes on that one.
Brad R.
It makes a bit more sense why people swarm to outlets of mean-spirited political humor, quality examples of which include Goldstein and Tbogg…
Ahem. *COUGH*
Brad R.
I don’t do “mean-spirited” political humor as a rule. In fact my site is completely different in aims from Tbogg’s.
I, on the other hand, am proud to write for a left-wing smear site. My only regret is that I still can’t get George Soros to pay me for it…
Lines
hey, when you can’t win elections, make fun of those that do, right Brad?
Just yanking yer chain, bud :)
Otto Man
Seriously, could someone go look at the most recent posts at Goldstein’s and point out the funny parts to me. Because unless we as a nation have changed the meaning of “funny” there’s nothing there that even comes close.
Here’s the top one:
That’s funny? It’s like a page from Scooter Libby’s high school yearbook.
Otto Man
Or the second post:
Get it? He’d pretend to be gay if he could touch her boobies! But not if he had to have anal sex with another gay man. Therein lies the humor!
Tim F.
Jeff,
Of course you and TBogg aren’t the same blog; he doesn’t have an exact parallel on the right and you don’t have an easy analogue on the left. About the only thing that you have in common is that you both turn your sense of humor on yourselves and your basset/reading glasses far more often than you do on your political allies.
As a terrorist-appeasing leftie of questionable patriotism, trust me that humor often feels more mean-spirited to the target than it does to the scribe. In my experience you don’t have TBogg’s Triumph the Insult Comic Dog approach, and contrary to sharper-tongued commenters I think that it’s often both quality and funny, but it’s nonetheless targeted. I’m sure that you have mocked war supporters or the president but it isn’t often.
About this site, John is perfectly happy to piss off “the right”, yourself included and I’m generally happy to call bullshit on “the left” when I see fit. A rare animal in blogland, John sets an example up to which I try to live.
The general point, which I don’t think is all that controversial, is that people can build rabid constituencies with regular doses of red meat. I hope that you don’t take it that badly that as purveyors of red meat go your work stands out.
Dawrk Sided Stuff
Why this Red State voter seems perfectly sane to me:
http://media.putfile.com/trading_spouses_crazy_religious_woman
srv
But was there an echo?
Bob In Pacifica
I agree with ThomasD. There doesn’t seem to be anything of use here.
There are better ways to explore why different groups of voters perceive their choices differently. This study sounds at best silly, at worst deliberately bogus.
Johnny
I thought that it was a long established “truth” that more mental effort goes into rationalizing a decision than making one.
kl
Have you tried asking? He seems pretty free with a dollar.
Brad R.
hey, when you can’t win elections, make fun of those that do, right Brad?
Funny thing is, effectively winning elections is vastly different from governing effectively. For instance, the modern Republicans seem very good at getting themselves elected, but not good at actually governing the country.
The process of winning elections is one that I genuinely don’t understand- how, for instance, can a BS book published by the wingnutty Regnery Press successfully taint the image of a decorated Vietnam vet? It’s a mystery (though I suspect some of it… OK, a LOT of it… had to do with the Kerry camp’s inept response to said attacks).
I think that Democrats aren’t very effective at message control during campaign season. I mean, John McCain might vehemenently disagree with, say, Tom DeLay on a lot of issues, but come campaign time, both of them put their differences aside and recite the ol’ talkin’ points. Democrats, meanwhile, are all over the damn map, which is why the public doesn’t think our party stands for something. The centrist and left wings of the party are gonna need to come together and iron out a basic message that all of them are comfortable conveying to the public. That way, you won’t get any of this “I voted for it before I voted against it” nonsense.
Lines
I agree Brad, and I had no intention of starting a rant, but I’m glad I did.
But the day the Democrats hire a Turdblossom to do every ounce of PR and control the coverage is the day that I stop voting for them as well. I crave the transparency and honesty that comes from personal differences among Democrats. Putting that diversity into a pro-Democrat platform would be much more honest than trying to push a series of small lies that snowballs on the party later.
Steve S
That’s because your supposed to realize all the campaigning bullshit was simply bullshit when you get into office.
The Other Steve
I think Tawana is hilarious. Especially when he’s out there pretending to be a victim of a vast left wing conspiracy.
moflicky
I think the term is cognitive dissonance. or a river in egypt.
slickdpdx
Like most studies – it confirms something we already knew about ourselves…
Pablo
The same way that alleged copies of ancient TANG documents could taint a the image of a sitting President, had the attack not been so inept.
Your suspiscion couldn’t be more correct. Attacks on opponents are now more common than simple requests for your vote. If you can’t or aren’t willing to defend yourself, there’s no point in throwing your hat into the ring. Every race is a smear to the death match now.
Not saying this is a good thing, mind you…
Pablo
Are you familiar with James Carville? He might well have gotten Kerry elected, had Kerry had sense enough to hire him.
Porco Rosso
Carville?
I think this study explains the marriage of Carville and Mary Matlin. They are two political junkies getting each other off.
It’s wholesome and weirdly kinky at the same time when you think about it.
Sadly, No! Investor Relations
Well, I nominate myself for actually writing the SadNo piece. Brad has been in semi-retirement ever since the thing with the croquet gang, with the mallets and the pounding.