Re: Study Links Republicanism To Racism
nimh wrote:Very a propos by the way, that paragraph. I swear I hadnt read this when I made that remark in the Bush supp thread a few hours ago.
Quote: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.
We were discussing that very phenomenon (if correctly interpreted) at lunch the other day, and trying to figure out just what the hell benefit, evolutionarily speaking, tha could possibly have!
Reinforcing yourself for failing to take into account information NOT supporting your ideas of a situation?
You'd think the human/primate ancestor doing THAT might well have ended up dead.
But.....look at similar things, like persisting with political and economic strategies, wars etc that are clearly failing, and how we cling.
Gives a fascinating new insight into, and support for, the theories around cognitive dissonance...
But why it has not evolved out....