Think your political beliefs arise from logic and reason? Think again. A team of scientists who studied the brains of liberal, moderate and conservative people found that they could tell who leaned left and who leaned right based on how their brains responded to disgusting pictures. The findings, published in Current Biology, show that the brains of liberals and conservatives may indeed be wired differently and shed light on the biological factors at play in political beliefs. Biology and politics have long been seen by many researchers as two very separate realms. Some argue that biology is irrelevant to political questions, or that the links between the two are murky or oversimplified. Despite growing evidence from various fields, including genetics, cognitive neuroscience and psychology, many political scientists remain skeptical of research connecting biological factors with political ideology, the study authors wrote. But many of the same subjects at issue in certain political ideologies attitudes toward sex, family, education and personal autonomy, for example have an emotional component as much as a logic-based one. And some research has indicated that political leanings can be inherited (much in the same way that height can inherited but modified, affected by a number of … Continue reading →