http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-politicalbrain_bothsep10,0,7031258.story

Political attitudes may be all in head
Being conservative, liberal or in-between is wired in the brain, new study suggests

The differences between liberals and conservatives may run deeper than how they feel about welfare reform or the progress of the Iraq war: Researchers reported Sunday that their brains may actually work differently.

In a study likely to raise the hackles of some conservatives, psychologist David Amodio and others found that a specific region of the brain's cortex is more sensitive in people who consider themselves liberals than in self-declared conservatives.

The brain region in question helps people shift gears when their usual response would be inappropriate, supporting the notion that liberals are more flexible in their thinking.

"Say you drive home from work the same way every day, but one day there's a detour and you need to override your autopilot," said Amodio, a professor at New York University. "Most people function just fine. But there's a little variability in how sensitive people are to the cue that they need to change their current course."

That "cue" is processed in a part of the brain known as the anterior cingulate cortex, and Amodio was able to monitor its electrical activity by hooking his subjects up to electroencephalographs (EEGs) while they performed laboratory tests.

Unflattering traits

The work grew out of decades of previous research suggesting that political orientation is linked to certain personality traits or styles of thinking. A review of that research published in 2003 found that conservatives tend to be more rigid and closed-minded, less tolerant of ambiguity and less open to new experiences.

Whoops, you left out some parts. Thanks for posting the link to the article so I could get the full story, not just your slant.

From the author of the study-

"It's wrong to conclude that our results provide only bad news for conservatives," he wrote on Aug. 28, 2003. "True, we find some support for the traditional 'rigidity-of-the-right' hypothesis, but it is also true that liberals could be characterized on the basis of our overall profile as relatively disorganized, indecisive and perhaps overly drawn to ambiguity."

and

"We're not a very liberal country," she said. "We're more likely to find extreme conservatives in the U.S. than extreme liberals."

Skitka said there's ample evidence that ideologues on the far left can also be uptight.

"Extreme conservatives could be really rigid," she said. "Moderates should be pretty flexible. But if we go all the way to the left, they may look a lot like the extreme right -- rigid in their ideas."

So, if you're on the extreme left OR right, you're a tool?

Sounds about right to me.

once agin Dan gets right to the point. A ture meat & tater kinda guy