Great article about the differences in the brains of conservatives and liberals. This also explains how fearful persons are Trump supporters. No matter what he does or doesn't do, his approval remains steady.
[psychologytoday.com]
I have always felt my political bent is genetic...always. What about you?
Yeah... I have seen similar studies and conservative people are fearful of change. Problem: Change is the only CONSTANT in life, haha. The brain is incredibly plastic and subject to epigenetic influences. MRI scans show physical and functional differences between Asian and Western test subjects, too. Genes themselves are not the whole story, by a longshot. Many "lower" species have many more genes than humans and cracking the Human Genome was amazingly easy to do... scientists were shocked at that. They discovered that 98% of our genetic material is broken up snippets of helixes and was formerly considered JUNK DNA. But Nature doesn't do junk. They are epigenetic switches that switch genes off and on, sometimes several times in our lives. The Human Epigenome Project is underway and has several million ever changing, enviro-influenced parts to it, so it will take decades to crack, if we ever succeed.
Most Atheists are vilifying TrumpOLINIbots...... this article increases my compassion for the falsely labeled "conservatives" ...... zionism could be felt genetically tribally but voting patterns are learned like languages..... I suppose I inherited my Atheism and drive to campaign for office from forebears I was never introduced to when they were alive ....my dad called his uncle a "rattlesnake" for his lifelong Atheism....thankyou for this interesting sharing
Over the years, I have read similar brain studies showing conservatives and religious people are far more driven by fear than liberals.
As a liberal, I am a lifelong learner. I welcome growing and changing.
Conservatism It is a mental illness born out of fear and false superiority over anyone not like themselves!!!
There seem to be several factors that hard-wire people to be susceptible to trumpism. I've read about the amygdala before. The hippocampus is another.
I was raised in a liberal family so I don't know. I do know that every stupid person I know is conservative. I know a few intellegent conservatives, but we have never discussed why.
@EarnestEccentric I do know a couple of really smart Conservatives. they are friends of mine. I see smart Conservatives on MSNBC all of the time. A couple of their hosts are Conservatives. Michael Steele is smart.They have left the party, but they are still Conservatives.
My father wasn't afraid of anything and I think I get my liberal tendencies from him. My mother was always sure that someone was stealing from her and she was a racist and a conservative Democrat.I will always remember her counting the silverware after she had someone come in to clean the house.What was really sad as we had stainless steel.I truly hope I'm not like my mother in many ways.
I was raised by a liberal, single mom who was a staunch Kennedy supporter, and from whom I rebelled, joining the military, regularly attending church and voting Republican for decades. But then I had kids of my own, who while in their teens, literally forced me to defend, if not entirely re-think my political philosophy. Confronted by their integrity, I began to evolve away from the rigidity of my youth, and the older I get, I'm almost surprised to find that the more liberal I become. I'm now determined to age progressively!
I've wondered about that genetic link but, it doesn't work in my case. The family was very conservative, anti-gay, anti-women working, etc. In all fairness to them, it was the times they lived in. Somehow, it didn't ''take'' with me. I'm glad your family didn't want to excommunicate you! (Mine did!)