The structural brain differences between people who can accommodate difference and those who badly tolerate difference is well documented. - cell.com
- Researchers at University College London found that self-described conservative students had a larger amygdala than liberals. The amygdala is active during states of fear and anxiety.
- Self-described liberal students had more gray matter in the anterior cingulate cortex, a region of the brain that helps people cope with complexity.
Based on people in my own immediate and extended family I'd say these differences are entirely genetic with cultural attempts to change this predisposition being relatively futile.
One of my Grandmother's graduated from USC in 1918, so relatively smart and accomplished for that era. But she was always very politically conservative and conservative in lifestyle. She was anxious about anything different in a way that was very noticeable. She never had any interest in traveling outside of the United States, nor even outside of California where she had gown up.
When her daughters took her to Hawaii we saw their slide show of Mt Haleakala, a barely active volcano. My Mother knew her Mother-in-Law well, so asked her how she liked the volcano. She replied in her quavering trill, "Oh noooo, I stayed at the hotel. I would never go to a volcano," which was funny to everyone present.
One day as a young adult I had lunch with her cousin Faith who lived a few blocks away from my Grandmother, who traveled the world and did things like hiking in the Swiss Alps with her husband. I asked her, "Don't misunderstand I love my Grandmother, but why is she so conservative the way she is?" I didn't even have to describe it any further. She replied, "I don't know, Marian has been very conservative like that ever since she was a little girl."
That's not scientific proof, but I think if's safe to say this brain difference is genetic.
Conservatives working at a psychologist's computer matching patterns or doing simple math recover to their previous level of performance far less quickly after being startled mid-task by a loud buzzer. Liberals are more briefly impaired in their ability to resume their tasks post-buzzer.
Not surprisingly conservatives are more attuned to stimuli in their environment they find threatening or disgusting. - cambridge.org
There are useful functions in society for each of these two different brain types, but they'll never be able to see the world around them in the same way simply because their reaction to the same stimuli is so different. |
