In an interview with PsyPost, lead study author Jesús Adrián-Ventura said that he and his team found that right-wing authoritarianism was associated with lower grey matter volume in the dorsomedial prefrontal cortex — a “region involved in understanding others’ thoughts and perspectives,” as the assistant Zaragoza psychology professor put it.
So subscribing to “right-wing” beliefs (they merely describe it as adhering to conservative or traditional values) literally makes you less able to understand others. So even the brain shows signs of a lack of community and mutuality between people. While it doesn’t surprise me that right-wingers are less understanding, it’s intriguing that there seems to be a visible change in the brain. What I’m curious about now is if this can be reversed.
The left-wing authoritarians of the bunch — we don’t know exactly how many, as the results weren’t broken down in the paper — had less cortical (or outer brain layer) thickness in the right anterior insula, which is “associated with emotional empathy and behavioral inhibition.” Cortical thickness in that brain region has been the subject of ample research, from a 2005 study that found people who meditate regularly have greater thickness in the right anterior insula to a 2018 study that linked it to greater moral disgust.
Ok so… left-wingers, according to this study, are less empathetic and more impulsive…
Kidding aside, if we take the article at face value, I think it’d be safe to say that we all need to mediate more and go on as we are. Still, more research would be nice. Hope they don’t stop with this study.
The beauty of these studies is because the words they use mean nothing the study can mean anything. “Right wing authoritarianism” What is right wing? Biden? Trump? They both are to me. But likely the study doesnt think biden is right wing. Did they count all Israel supporters as right wing? What were the left wing authoritarian supporters? Democrats? Green party libs? Based Stalinists?
Its like saying i did a study of cool people and found they all have bigger toes than average. What makes someone cool? Who decides whats cool and isnt cool? All governments are authoritarian so was this study just on anyone that isnt a full blown anarchist? Where do they draw the line?
The study cites this for how they measured each form of “authoritarianism”:
The study it cites about “left-wing authoritarianism” explicitly states that it “strongly correlates with engagement in political violence” in the abstract and for why they think their research matters, which makes it sound like they want to get some phrenology-based “Minority Report” thing going.
I find this kind of research very suspicious overall.
ya i find it super sus too. Like even assuming the studies finding are infalliable and true which they arent, you still have correlation/causation issues. Issues with the interplay of each persons political views with their own existing government, for example a communist in the USA or in China has a very different lived experience. Its just a nonsense study imo.
to make any sense at all of this kind of study result, it is definitely necessary to go read the entire thing, and then if it’s a survey, the survey questions themselves, which are often unavailable. and also the article itself is probably paywalled too.
As the researchers defined them, right-wing authoritarians are people who ascribe to conservative ideologies and so-called “traditional values” who advocate for “punitive measures for social control,” while left-wing authoritarians are interested in “violently overthrow[ing] and [penalizing] the current structures of authority and power in society.”
Not that I believe the political compass is a valid representation, but whatever definition these folks are using is even weirder. Then again, they agree with Engels that revolutions are authoritarian by nature, so maybe i’m the wrong one.
From the paper: “LWA anti-hierarchical aggression was negatively related to the insular thickness”
I find it hard to believe that leftists would be associated with less empathy–but empathy is a very flexible word in psychology.
Importantly, the right anterior insula is strongly related with affective empathy
Disclaimer: not a shrink and I generally believe most “social” sciences are unworthy of the title, but I really do like to read
They cite studies that do fMRIs to test cognitive vs affective empathy; more recent trends in psychology/neurology tend toward defining more than two kinds of empathy; most often using cognitive, affective/emotional, and compassionate.
Cognitive empathy: detecting and analyzing the emotional state of another
Affective/Emotional empathy: experiencing the emotional state of another or tying it to one’s own experiences
Compassionate empathy: a desire or drive to alleviate another’s emotional distress
Compassion is a big-brain thing–as in it requires a bunch of the brain bits working together, instead of a couple areas firing up.
So subscribing to “right-wing” beliefs (they merely describe it as adhering to conservative or traditional values) literally makes you less able to understand others. So even the brain shows signs of a lack of community and mutuality between people. While it doesn’t surprise me that right-wingers are less understanding, it’s intriguing that there seems to be a visible change in the brain. What I’m curious about now is if this can be reversed.
Ok so… left-wingers, according to this study, are less empathetic and more impulsive…
Kidding aside, if we take the article at face value, I think it’d be safe to say that we all need to mediate more and go on as we are. Still, more research would be nice. Hope they don’t stop with this study.
The beauty of these studies is because the words they use mean nothing the study can mean anything. “Right wing authoritarianism” What is right wing? Biden? Trump? They both are to me. But likely the study doesnt think biden is right wing. Did they count all Israel supporters as right wing? What were the left wing authoritarian supporters? Democrats? Green party libs? Based Stalinists?
Its like saying i did a study of cool people and found they all have bigger toes than average. What makes someone cool? Who decides whats cool and isnt cool? All governments are authoritarian so was this study just on anyone that isnt a full blown anarchist? Where do they draw the line?
The study cites this for how they measured each form of “authoritarianism”:
The study it cites about “left-wing authoritarianism” explicitly states that it “strongly correlates with engagement in political violence” in the abstract and for why they think their research matters, which makes it sound like they want to get some phrenology-based “Minority Report” thing going.
I find this kind of research very suspicious overall.
ya i find it super sus too. Like even assuming the studies finding are infalliable and true which they arent, you still have correlation/causation issues. Issues with the interplay of each persons political views with their own existing government, for example a communist in the USA or in China has a very different lived experience. Its just a nonsense study imo.
Luckily they know so little about the brain all they can do is publish bunk studies like this shit
to make any sense at all of this kind of study result, it is definitely necessary to go read the entire thing, and then if it’s a survey, the survey questions themselves, which are often unavailable. and also the article itself is probably paywalled too.
Duh, people with bigger toes are cool
Not that I believe the political compass is a valid representation, but whatever definition these folks are using is even weirder. Then again, they agree with Engels that revolutions are authoritarian by nature, so maybe i’m the wrong one.
I find it hard to believe that leftists would be associated with less empathy–but empathy is a very flexible word in psychology.
Ah, here we go, quote from the study:
Disclaimer: not a shrink and I generally believe most “social” sciences are unworthy of the title, but I really do like to read
They cite studies that do fMRIs to test cognitive vs affective empathy; more recent trends in psychology/neurology tend toward defining more than two kinds of empathy; most often using cognitive, affective/emotional, and compassionate.
Compassion is a big-brain thing–as in it requires a bunch of the brain bits working together, instead of a couple areas firing up.
Oh shit this helps me make sense of what seemed like a personal contradiction, where I’m light on type 2 but heavy on types 1 and 3