Science - Right-Wing Brain, Left-Wing Brain

Do you tolerate ambiguity and conflict well? Or poorly? According to the L.A. Times, scientists at New York University and UCLA have designed a study that finds political orientation is related to differences in how the brain processes information.

I'm somewhat skeptical, as always, but withholding judgement for the nonce. This part of the report did, however, catch my eye (or brain?):

Frank J. Sulloway, a researcher at UC Berkeley's Institute of Personality and Social Research who was not connected to the study, said results "provided an elegant demonstration that individual differences on a conservative-liberal dimension are strongly related to brain activity."

Analyzing the data, Sulloway said liberals were 4.9 times as likely as conservatives to show activity in the brain circuits that deal with conflicts, and 2.2 times as likely to score in the top half of the distribution for accuracy.

Sulloway said the results could explain why President Bush demonstrated a single-minded commitment to the Iraq war and why some people perceived Sen. John F. Kerry, the liberal Massachusetts Democrat who opposed Bush in the 2004 presidential race, as a flip-flopper for changing his mind about the conflict.

Based on the results, he said, liberals could be expected to more readily accept new social, scientific or religious ideas.

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