PARTISAN ADDICTION: ARE THEY ADDICTS OR JUST INSANE? [+] serious ballot by passiveson ACTIVE Fri Mar 09, 07 - Sun Mar 08, 09 Political Partisans Addicted To Irrational Defense Of Their Party When it comes to forming opinions and making judgments on hot political issues, partisans of both parties don't let facts get in the way of their decision-making, according to a new Emory University study. The research sheds light on why staunch Democrats and Republicans can hear the same information, but walk away with opposite conclusions. Using functional neuroimaging (fMRI), investigators studied a sample of committed Democrats and Republicans during reasoning tasks in which they had to evaluate threatening information about their own candidate. During the tasks, the subjects underwent fMRI to see what parts of their brain were active. *We did not see any increased activation of the parts of the brain normally engaged during reasoning,* says Drew Westen, director of clinical psychology at Emory who led the study. *What we saw instead was a network of emotion circuits lighting up, including circuits hypothesized to be involved in regulating emotion, and circuits known to be involved in resolving conflicts.* Once partisans had come to completely biased conclusions -- essentially finding ways to ignore information that could not be rationally discounted -- not only did circuits that mediate negative emotions like sadness and disgust turn off, but subjects got a blast of activation in circuits involved in reward -- similar to what addicts receive when they get their fix, Westen explains. *None of the circuits involved in conscious reasoning were particularly engaged,* says Westen. *Essentially, it appears as if partisans twirl the cognitive kaleidoscope until they get the conclusions they want, and then they get massively reinforced for it, with the elimination of negative emotional states and activation of positive ones.* The feeling of partisan loyalty appears to be an obstacle to rational thought. Abandon your partisan loyalties and the effect will be to boost your ability to understand political events. Also, distrust the most partisan commentators who defend the leaders of their factions. Their odds of making sense and being correct are lower than for less partisan commentators. No Wonder Politicians Never Make Sense. Are They Addicts Or Just Insane? Addiction Insane actual extremists Ballot #112893 : SEE RESULTS Comment: show your vote with comment?

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