Brain type may dictate politics

This article is more than 13 years old
, science correspondent
Mon 10 Sep 2007 07.48 EDT

Political differences might be explained by a fundamental variation in how our brains are "wired" to process information, according to a study published today.



Dr Amodio asked 43 volunteers to press a button on seeing a frequent cue - that caused an habitual response. A less frequent cue required no button pressing. Electroencephalograms revealed liberals were more likely to withhold the habitual response and had more activity in a part of the brain involved in conflict monitoring.

The study is not conclusive, Dr Amodio says, but it is possible that political orientation to some degree reflects a person's style of information processing.