Partisan Thought Is Unconscious

As an amateur enthusiast of neuroscience I have always known that brain chemistry--not moral values--was the kicker when it came to partisan politics:

A Shocker: Partisan Thought Is Unconscious : "Using M.R.I. scanners, neuroscientists have now tracked what happens in the politically partisan brain when it tries to digest damning facts about favored candidates or criticisms of them. The process is almost entirely emotional and unconscious, the researchers report, and there are flares of activity in the brain's pleasure centers when unwelcome information is being rejected.

'Everything we know about cognition suggests that, when faced with a contradiction, we use the rational regions of our brain to think about it, but that was not the case here,' said Dr. Drew Westen, a psychologist at Emory and lead author of the study, to be presented Saturday at meetings of the Society for Personality and Social Psychology in Palm Springs, Calif.

The results are the latest from brain imaging studies that provide a neural explanation for internal states, like infatuation or ambivalence, and a graphic trace of the brain's activity."

To finally have some science that goes to political thinking and "bias" is thrilling. However, what will be most funny (and sad) is that moralists, instead of questioning their religious bias will find in this evidence that God is wiring their brains so they think acoording to His Desires. The other "white meat" will come from wingers who dismiss the research because it was reported in the New York Times!