Your Brain on Politics

By Georgianna Reilly, LMSW
SJS Staff Writer

So the election is over and Obama has another four years in office. Social Media sites are a flutter with happy Democrats and raging Republicans, but what does all of this say about our brains as a nation, as competing political parties, and as individuals? According to a recent neuroscience study conducted at the University of South Carolina it suggests that those who affiliate strongly with both parties are inherently different in brain structure and composition.

Using MRI procedures that observed mirror neurons in participants the study staff determined that:

“The results found more neural activity in areas believed to be linked with broad social connectedness in Democrats (friends, the world at-large) and more activity in areas linked with tight social connectedness in the Republicans (family, country).”

This is an interesting finding, one that is surly going to be used in future elections to play off these differences in voters. To me it brings up  a ‘chicken or the egg’ question. Is this variation the result of original brain structure and genetics, or did this structure modified due to experiences and environment?

Unfortunately the results point to being open minded in the political field as a difficult task and this seems true. It seems we are more divided than ever, and that a united front is difficult to come by, but if this study is accurate that is the result of something more  inherent then belief systems. Our thoughts come from someplace, and in this case it just might be the structure of our brain to come extent. So, how would we address such a situation?