THE conservative voters They have a region of the brain, the tonsilwhich comes from slightly larger size to that of the people of progressive ideology. These are the results of a study published in the journal iScience which confirmed that there are neurological differences depending on political preferences. They are, however, tiny from a morphological point of view, specify the authors, since the difference in volume is equivalent to “a grain of sesame“.
The differences between individuals’ amygdalae and their relationship to political ideology had already been anticipated by previous, smaller studies. However, when using a sample of participants ten times larger and more diversethe researchers were able to confirm the phenomenon. However, another area related to political elections, the anterior cingulate cortexwas not found to exhibit significant variation among voters. “It was a real surprise,” says Diamantis Petropoulos Petalas of the American College of Greece.
The new work used 928 brain scans of people in the Netherlands aged 19 to 26, classified according to their preferences across the multi-party political spectrum. This allowed us to obtain more accurate results than in previous tests carried out in the United Kingdom, says Petropoulos, because the system there is bipartisan and dilutes ideological aspects. The brain images were analyzed using self-reported questionnaires in which volunteers gave their opinions on various political issues.
The results confirm that there is a relationship between gray matter volume in the amygdala and ideology, but it is three times lower than the British study carried out in 2011 pointed out. “The amygdala controls the perception and evaluation of risks and threats. It therefore makes perfect sense that people who consider risks and threats more important security-focused policies lean towards positions that tend to traditionally align with conservatism,” explains the researcher.
These relationships were also confirmed within the same political spectrum. A voter of Socialist Party Dutch voters, who advocate left-wing economic measures but have more conservative social values, would tend to have a larger amygdala than other left-wing voters who prefer more radical progressive parties, Petropoulos says. On the other hand, although the anterior cingulate cortex regulates emotional control and impulsestheir morphological differences could not be linked to specific ideologies.
The relationship between amygdala size and political inclination.
However, a possible association was detected between political identity and gray matter in the right fusiform gyrusan area of the temporal lobe essential for performing cognitive and visual functions. “We also link them to our political exercise,” continues the specialist, “because we personally identify politicians with the different ideological positions in every news file”. It is therefore enough to remember the face of a significant personality in the administration, economy or society for this region to become active.
“In my opinion, identifying policy orientations based on brain morphology should provide a better understanding of functional connection mechanisms,” says Petropoulos. “This will help us become familiar with the phenomenon of synchronization neural: how brains are organized in relation to each individual, and what differences can explain why we interpret content differently depending on our ideologies and our political options.
