From the November issue of Harper’s:
Scientists announced that conservatives and liberals have different patterns of neuronal impulses when confronted with unexpected circumstances. Self-described conservatives pressed the wrong button in response to a new stimulus 47 percent of the time, whereas avowed liberals had a 37 percent error rate; liberals had double the activity of conservatives in the anterior cingulate cortex, a deep region of the brain that helps people recognize “no-go” situations, but the study’s authors emphasized that the results do not mean that liberals are smarter or better than conservatives.
Dear authors of the study, I understand why you’d play it safe and issue that disclaimer at the end. We know (wink, wink) what the results mean, though, don’t we?
Smart people should not rely on junk science. It always comes back to bite you. Anyone ignorant or emotionally frail enough to deny global warming was able to skewer Al Gore on the junk science in the movie while they blithely ignored the preponderance of irrefutable facts. The more rigorous the science, the more immune to spin it is. That’s why we call it science.
PILS(People who Identify as Liberals) will get more mileage out of being percieved as smart, hence powerful, than just calling PICS (people who Identify as Conservatives) stupid.
I can see where pointing our stupidity could be useful if it’s done constructively, knowing what we now know about how the so-called conservative mind works; hierarchical, paternalistic, all that, but saying liberals are smarter is… just not smart enough. That said, it blows my mind how many voters, both PIL and PIC, put ideology ahead of intelligence (not to mention competence and integrity). But then, I’m a moderate.