6 ms·

Maybe they should say, “individuals who share the same American ideology”. What is interesting to me is this part of the abstract: …revealing that polarizatio

Maybe they should say, “individuals who share the same American ideology”. What is interesting to me is this part of the abstract: …revealing that polarization can arise from differences in the brain’s affective valuations of political concepts. I wonder if things are reversed in the sense that consuming the same sort of news content causes those peoples’ brains to end up with the same affective valuations. I know nothing about neuroscience but it seems if we took someone with centrist or left leaning views and subjected them to only political news from very right wing sources for a long time maybe their brains would be altered. Is it reasonable to wonder if similarities in brain responses to political concepts comes from consuming the same sort of media messages? Is Fox News (or left wing equivalent) unwittingly changing our brains (brain washing)?

rayiner 4y ago
I suspect the opposite is true. Political orientation likely maps onto personality traits: https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-politics-55834023 https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-politics-55834023. The relevant political issues of the time may then cause people to react to them differently depending on personality traits, and cause people with similar traits to coalesce into like minded coalitions. That being said, psychology is a pseudoscience so who knows what anything is anyway.
- syzarian 4y ago
  People can be “brainwashed” or “deprogrammed”. Does this change the brain? Certainly the direction you propose is plausible. I wonder what the direction of the cause/effect is.
  - rayiner 4y ago
    Can they? https://theconversation.com/the-brainwashing-myth-99272 https://theconversation.com/the-brainwashing-myth-99272
    - syzarian 4y ago
      That’s a nice article. This line stood out to me: This commitment arose from their conversion experiences and their gradual, conditioned acceptance of ethical misbehavior. I don’t have a formal definition of “brainwashing”. That term, to me, is akin to gradual, conditioned acceptance. From my reading of the article the author and I seem to have different perceptions of what the word “brainwashing” means. He does say that people are moving away from the term “brainwashing” and using terms like “coercive persuasion”. This line too stood out to me: We don’t say that soldiers are brainwashed to kill other people; that’s basic training. I actually would say that soldiers are brainwashed. I use that term in a colloquial sense. I use in the sense of the video linked to below. Let me state my question in a different way, does gradual, conditioned acceptance change one’s brain in any significant way? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2n2gryg9Yvk https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2n2gryg9Yvk
    - edgyquant 4y ago
      Yes and no amount of random articles will convince people this obvious fact is untrue. People can be conditioned and brainwashed just as I can breathe the air.
- edgyquant 4y ago
  >Political orientation likely maps onto personality traits: Then explain political realignments. I personally have completely switched political parties in the last year, and I am not a 24 year old who’s brain wasn’t developed.
  - rayiner 4y ago
    Your brain does chemically change later in life, especially when you have kids. Apart from that, political parties are coalitions of different groups, and those coalitions (and the parties) change as the salient issues change. COVID was a good example of this, where the “fuck the establishment” types Trump recently brought into the GOP clashed with the “conformity and order” Romney types that traditionally controlled the GOP. My county, which includes Annapolis, went for Romney in 2012 and for Larry Hogan by 38 points, but Biden by 14. The area has a large military officer presence, and their inclination toward conformity, discipline, and order cut differently during COVID than when other issues were more salient.

rayiner 4y ago

I suspect the opposite is true. Political orientation likely maps onto personality traits: https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-politics-55834023 https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-politics-55834023. The relevant political issues of the time may then cause people to react to them differently depending on personality traits, and cause people with similar traits to coalesce into like minded coalitions. That being said, psychology is a pseudoscience so who knows what anything is anyway.

syzarian 4y ago
People can be “brainwashed” or “deprogrammed”. Does this change the brain? Certainly the direction you propose is plausible. I wonder what the direction of the cause/effect is.
- rayiner 4y ago
  Can they? https://theconversation.com/the-brainwashing-myth-99272 https://theconversation.com/the-brainwashing-myth-99272
  - syzarian 4y ago
    That’s a nice article. This line stood out to me: This commitment arose from their conversion experiences and their gradual, conditioned acceptance of ethical misbehavior. I don’t have a formal definition of “brainwashing”. That term, to me, is akin to gradual, conditioned acceptance. From my reading of the article the author and I seem to have different perceptions of what the word “brainwashing” means. He does say that people are moving away from the term “brainwashing” and using terms like “coercive persuasion”. This line too stood out to me: We don’t say that soldiers are brainwashed to kill other people; that’s basic training. I actually would say that soldiers are brainwashed. I use that term in a colloquial sense. I use in the sense of the video linked to below. Let me state my question in a different way, does gradual, conditioned acceptance change one’s brain in any significant way? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2n2gryg9Yvk https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2n2gryg9Yvk
  - edgyquant 4y ago
    Yes and no amount of random articles will convince people this obvious fact is untrue. People can be conditioned and brainwashed just as I can breathe the air.
edgyquant 4y ago
>Political orientation likely maps onto personality traits: Then explain political realignments. I personally have completely switched political parties in the last year, and I am not a 24 year old who’s brain wasn’t developed.
- rayiner 4y ago
  Your brain does chemically change later in life, especially when you have kids. Apart from that, political parties are coalitions of different groups, and those coalitions (and the parties) change as the salient issues change. COVID was a good example of this, where the “fuck the establishment” types Trump recently brought into the GOP clashed with the “conformity and order” Romney types that traditionally controlled the GOP. My county, which includes Annapolis, went for Romney in 2012 and for Larry Hogan by 38 points, but Biden by 14. The area has a large military officer presence, and their inclination toward conformity, discipline, and order cut differently during COVID than when other issues were more salient.