Capitol Fax.com - Your Illinois News Radar

Partisans don’t think

Posted in:

Illinois

I think I’ve noticed the same thing here on occasion.

Democrats and Republicans alike are adept at making decisions without letting the facts get in the way, a new study shows.

And they get quite a rush from ignoring information that’s contrary to their point of view.

Researchers asked staunch party members from both sides to evaluate information that threatened their preferred candidate prior to the 2004 Presidential election. The subjects’ brains were monitored while they pondered. […]

The test subjects on both sides of the political aisle reached totally biased conclusions by ignoring information that could not rationally be discounted, Westen and his colleagues say.

Then, with their minds made up, brain activity ceased in the areas that deal with negative emotions such as disgust. But activity spiked in the circuits involved in reward, a response similar to what addicts experience when they get a fix, Westen explained.

The study points to a total lack of reason in political decision-making. […]

Both Republicans and Democrats consistently denied obvious contradictions for their own candidate but detected contradictions in the opposing candidate.

“The result is that partisan beliefs are calcified, and the person can learn very little from new data,” Westen said.

How encouraging. But it may help explain the phenomenal success of extremely partisan blogs. Their readers are essentially addicts looking for a fix.

posted by Rich Miller
Thursday, Jan 26, 06 @ 1:51 am

Comments

When you move to Springfield, it’s the first thing you notice in a work place or in your neighborhood, providing you talk to your neighbors. They can’t seem to get the concept that you vote independent of a political party. Both parties have skunks and swans, with no particular majority on either side. I have never understood the concept of voting for someone solely because he belongs to a particular political party. Don’t people care what these candidates have done or said in the past and if they are incumbents, how they voted on the things that matter to them? I guess it’s the ostrich with head in sand approach - if I didn’t see corruption, it didn’t happen. Nero and his fiddle would be rock stars in Washington in present times.

Comment by Ex-Newfie Thursday, Jan 26, 06 @ 6:27 am
“But it may help explain the phenomenal success of extremely partisan blogs. Their readers are essentially addicts looking for a fix.”

He’s never early, he’s always late
first thing you learn is that you always gotta wait
I’m waiting for my man

And the first fix is free

Comment by So-Called Thursday, Jan 26, 06 @ 6:28 am
This is so true. People don’t want to think that the party or people they support are ever wrong, therefore they find their way to a source that re-enforces their beliefs. It’s no wonder this country is do divided.

Comment by Krenzler Thursday, Jan 26, 06 @ 7:58 am