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Recent research using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) techniques is allowing us to peer into the connections, yet shrouded in mystery, between local brain activity, cognitive processes, and partisan attachment. This developing body of knowledge has revealed the profound importance of evolution in shaping the ways in which our brains process all kinds of information, in particular political information. At the center of this evolutionary journey is the importance of groups—of being initiated and accepted into them, of aligning ourselves with them, of being loyal to them regardless of philosophical considerations. The social dynamics of group membership and participation are programmed more deeply into our brains than is abstract philosophizing. “In other words, people will go along with the group, even if the ideas oppose their own ideologies—belonging may have more value than facts.” Because we once moved from place to place as nomads, such groups are our homes even more than any physical locations are.

We now have decades of research suggesting—if not proving—“the ubiquity of emotion-?biased motivated reasoning,” reasoning that is qualitatively different from the kind operating when subjects are engaged in “cold reasoning,” where the subjects lack a “strong emotional stake” in the subjects at issue. Coupled with a growing literature on the startling character and extent of political ignorance, the current state has dire implications for human freedom. The stakes are high: in their 2018 study of why and how partisanship impairs the brain’s ability to process information objectively, NYU researchers Jay J. Van Bavel and Andrea Pereira note that “partisanship can alter memory, implicit evaluation, and even perceptual judgments.” One recent study, published last fall by a team from Berkeley, Stanford, and Johns Hopkins, set out to better understand how partisan biases develop in the brain. The researchers had subjects watch a series of videos, using fMRI to explore the “neural mechanisms that underlie the biased processing of real-?world political content.” The results showed that partisan team members process identical information in highly biased and motivated ways. The researchers locate this neural polarization in the part of the brain known as the dorsomedial prefrontal cortex, a region associated with understanding and formulating narratives. The study also found, perhaps unsurprisingly, that to the extent a given participant’s brain activity during the videos aligned with that of the “average liberal” or “average conservative,” the participant was more likely to take up that group’s position.

The study accords with years of previous research showing that partisans’ opinions on important social, political, and economic issues are affected by subconscious brain processes—processes of which they’re neither aware nor in control. This ought to be deeply concerning to everyone who belongs to a political team: processes are taking place in your brain, underneath or beyond the level of direct awareness, that are informing your conclusions about important social and political issues. To reflect on this for even a moment should fill anyone who aspires to critical thinking or rationality with a kind of dread, for loyalty to the team seems to be overriding the higher faculties of the mind. But, the authors are careful to note, it’s important not to interpret these results as pointing to some kind of determinism, whereby we can’t choose how to think or what we believe. As one of the study’s authors, Stanford psychologist Jamil Zaki, says, “Critically, these differences do not imply that people are hardwired to disagree.” Rather, these neural pathways seem to be carved largely by the kinds and sources of the media we consume.

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Originally posted by 1KIKI:

links from the original article

Why Partisanship Is Such a Worthy Foe of Objective Truth

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It's the absolutest-ness of the party I am in that is such a turnoff to me.
It is so fucking elitist, you know, for something called Progressive, it allows for zero progress.
It's all or nothing. No steps toward. All or fucking nothing.
Again... Righteousness porn.
And I've been thinking about this a lot, just in general.
I just, I don't know that I want to be associated with any party.
I really, I think I don't want to be associated with any party anymore.
It just, it comes with too much baggage.
Every party. It comes with so much fucking baggage that no ideas can be taken at face value.
And without ideas, what are we?
Without a common truth, how can we talk about it?
You know, Republicans might hear an idea they would totally agree with, but if it comes from AOC, then they hate it.
And of course, you know, to be honest, when I hear an idea that comes from a Republican, it's suspect to me.
We all put... we all put too much shit on this stuff.
We no longer are able to be a nation of ideas.

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Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:
There is something to say about not knowing how to do anything for yourself or ever having the need to even learn though.

How many kids do you think are going to go back to school in the next few months with an additional 50lbs after a year of binge watching Netflix and playing video games while slamming Monster "energy" drinks and stuffing their fat lazy faces with Cheetos?

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Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:

Without reading it, here's what I think is in there,..

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Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:

If Sarah keeps this up, I'm going to owe her an apology for shitting all over her.

What an amazing thing if 2021 is the year that Sarah Silverman decides she wants to be funny again.

I hope she's prepared for the mob she has to know she's going to get just for posting that video.

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Originally posted by Jongsstraw:

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Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:

If Sarah keeps this up, I'm going to owe her an apology for shitting all over her.

What an amazing thing if 2021 is the year that Sarah Silverman decides she wants to be funny again.

I hope she's prepared for the mob she has to know she's going to get just for posting that video.

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I liked her in 1996's Star Trek Voyager episode 'Future's End'. And a year later I liked her in a memorable Seinfeld episode. Other than that I got no love for that crazy bitch.

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