Ever wonder why liberals act as they do?

[writerspleasure.livejournal.com]

I found this report from a neurology site quite interesting. It's often been remarked by those of a rightward leaning that the left are perpetually worried, negative, make word salads, incessantly move goalposts, jump from point to point restlessly ... the below sheds some light on that.

Anxiety, depression, and leftism correlate - we had detected a rightward bias in hemisphericity of the liberal as compared to the leftward bias in the conservative. There has been considerable research on the emotional attributes of the two hemispheres, and the right hemisphere has been implicated by many studies in negative emotions and depressive moods - strong correlation between goal-seeking and conservatism - Liberals show a greater tendency for multi-tasking, which is also a trait of people reporting depression and chronic anxiety - strong elevation in goal-seeking behavior in the conservatives, which is an indication that conservatives may be more "active" in their immediate environments - Liberals report elevated problems with language comprehension - Depression and especially anxiety **dramatically impair the ability to track and maintain focus during conversation**. This is consistent with other research (11), and also consistent with the right hemisphere's general deficit for literal language processing - http://neuropolitics.org/Anxiety-Depression-and-Goal-Seeking-in-Conservatives-Liberals-Moderates.htm (emphasis added by me)

Comments

[brendala.livejournal.com]

I don't put a lot of stock in studies like this. Mainly because any researcher can interpret and/or manipulate the data to make whatever group they don't like look stupid/crazy/mentally ill/whatever.

I've known a lot of well-adjusted, goal seeking liberals and a lot of staunch conservatives with crippling depression and/or anxiety. So this study doesn't ring true with my life experiences.

[rivetspoon.livejournal.com]

Not to mention the numbers weren't that staggeringly different.

[theidolhands.livejournal.com]

t/y

[mosinging1986.livejournal.com]

That's my take on it as well.

[ford-prefect42.livejournal.com]

I love the fact that when there's a quasi-scientific study that makes conservatives look *good*, every conservative I know says "I am skeptical". When there's a quasi-scientific study that makes liberals look good, every liberal I know says "see, conservatives are defective!!1!!1"

[kelincihutan.livejournal.com]

This is my thought. There was a "study" a few years ago that made the claim liberals were more intelligent than conservatives along some axis of intelligence that blah blah blah. I didn't put much stock in it, but all my lib friends were crowing gleefully about it. Major eyerolling on my part. And when they post a study like this, every comment they make is all in good fun and conservatives shouldn't take it seriously. I'd be a horrible person if I only linked this on facebook.

[kimana83.livejournal.com]

Agreed.