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Study Ties Political Leanings to Hidden Biases
by Decius at 11:27 pm EST, Feb 2, 2006 |
Emory University psychologist Drew Westen put self-identified Democratic and Republican partisans in brain scanners and asked them to evaluate negative information about various candidates. Both groups were quick to spot inconsistency and hypocrisy -- but only in candidates they opposed. When presented with negative information about the candidates they liked, partisans of all stripes found ways to discount it, Westen said. When the unpalatable information was rejected, furthermore, the brain scans showed that volunteers gave themselves feel-good pats -- the scans showed that "reward centers" in volunteers' brains were activated. The psychologist observed that the way these subjects dealt with unwelcome information had curious parallels with drug addiction as addicts also reward themselves for wrong-headed behavior.
Now this is damn interesting... |
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RE: Study Ties Political Leanings to Hidden Biases
by noteworthy at 2:13 pm EST, Feb 4, 2006 |
Districts that registered higher levels of bias systematically produced more votes for Bush.
I find this conclusion overreaching, because it ignores the opposing candidate. For some of these highly biased voters, Bush may simply be the lesser of two evils. The voters may have been turned off by a common liberal or democratic policy that Al Gore or John Kerry or John Edwards said. It could be about anything -- affirmative action, gun control, school prayer, or gay rights, for example. My criticism here falls under "correlation does not imply causation." On this topic, I was pleasantly surprised to find that the Wikipedia article on the "correlation implies causation" fallacy uses one of my favorite Simpsons scenes as an example: Homer: Not a bear in sight. The "Bear Patrol" is working like a charm!
Lisa: That's specious reasoning, Dad.
Homer: [uncomprehendingly] Thanks, honey.
Lisa: By your logic, I could claim that this rock keeps tigers away.
Homer: Hmm. How does it work?
Lisa: It doesn't work; it's just a stupid rock!
Homer: Uh-huh.
Lisa: But I don't see any tigers around, do you?
Homer: (pause) Lisa, I want to buy your rock.
These days, everyone has a rock for sale. What's yours? |
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RE: Study Ties Political Leanings to Hidden Biases
by Decius at 2:20 pm EST, Feb 4, 2006 |
noteworthy wrote: Districts that registered higher levels of bias systematically produced more votes for Bush.
For the record I memed this before reading it. The quote I mentioned about the nature of partisanship is interesting... I'd like to read more about that paper and less about correlation between racism and redstatism. I'll bet I can prove that Kerry voters are more likely to have smoked pot.
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RE: Study Ties Political Leanings to Hidden Biases
by noteworthy at 2:39 pm EST, Feb 4, 2006 |
Decius wrote:
I'd like to read more about that paper and less about correlation between racism and redstatism.
The conference being reported on in the article is the 2006 Annual Conference of the Society for Personality and Social Psychology. The paper is entitled "How Cultural Worldviews Shape Perceptions Of And Responses To Prejudice". It is not available on Brenda Major's web page. The SPSP's publications are published by Sage Publications. In the December 2005 issue of the Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, Brenda Major published an article entitled, "System-Justifying Beliefs and Psychological Well-Being: The Roles of Group Status and Identity." The abstract reads as follows: This research examined the relationship between endorsing system-justifying beliefs and psychological well-being among individuals fromethnic groups that vary in social status. Systemjustifying beliefs are beliefs that imply that status in society is fair, deserved, and merited; examples of system-justifying beliefs in the United States include the beliefs that hard work pays off and that anyone can get ahead regardless of their group membership. We found that endorsing system-justifying beliefs was negatively related to psychological well-being among members of lowstatus groups who were highly identified with their group but positively related to well-being among members of low-status groups who were not highly identified with their ethnic group. In addition, we found that endorsing system-justifying beliefs was positively related to well-being among members of high-status groups, especially among members of high-status groups who were highly identified with the group.
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Study Ties Political Leanings to Hidden Biases
by Neoteric at 2:02 am EST, Feb 3, 2006 |
Emory University psychologist Drew Westen put self-identified Democratic and Republican partisans in brain scanners and asked them to evaluate negative information about various candidates. Both groups were quick to spot inconsistency and hypocrisy -- but only in candidates they opposed. When presented with negative information about the candidates they liked, partisans of all stripes found ways to discount it, Westen said. When the unpalatable information was rejected, furthermore, the brain scans showed that volunteers gave themselves feel-good pats -- the scans showed that "reward centers" in volunteers' brains were activated. The psychologist observed that the way these subjects dealt with unwelcome information had curious parallels with drug addiction as addicts also reward themselves for wrong-headed behavior.
I want the paper. |
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RE: Study Ties Political Leanings to Hidden Biases
by noteworthy at 3:05 pm EST, Feb 4, 2006 |
Neoteric wrote: Emory University psychologist Drew Westen ...
I want the paper.
A recent article by NYT columnist John Tierney, Smells Like Team Spirit, refers to Westen's latest work in the context of sports fans. The researcher, Drew Westen, is at Emory University in Atlanta. At the site for the Laboratory of Personality and Psychopathology, you can find the paper, which is entitled, "The neural basis of motivated reasoning: An fMRI study of emotional constraints on political judgment during the U.S. Presidential election of 2004." This manuscript is currently in press. The site states: If you would like to view one of the manuscripts currently in press, please email us for a password to download it, at psychlab@emory.edu.
It's not clear from other web discussions whether the authors are providing access to this paper just yet; it is still under revision. Emory issued a press release about the work. |
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Study Ties Political Leanings to Hidden Biases
by Lost at 5:39 am EST, Feb 3, 2006 |
"Obviously, such research does not speak at all to the question of the prejudice level of the president," said Banaji, "but it does show that George W. Bush is appealing as a leader to those Americans who harbor greater anti-black prejudice."
Gold Star. If I knew how to give gold stars, that is, or if I had any. |
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RE: Study Ties Political Leanings to Hidden Biases
by dc0de at 8:39 am EST, Feb 3, 2006 |
Jello wrote: "Obviously, such research does not speak at all to the question of the prejudice level of the president," said Banaji, "but it does show that George W. Bush is appealing as a leader to those Americans who harbor greater anti-black prejudice."
So it could also be stated that: "but it does show that George W. Bush is not appealing as a leader to those Americans who harbor greater anti-white prejudice."
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