When it comes to these “cultural issues …” I think there’s a lot of wisdom to be gleaned from this study:
A study by scientists at New York University and the University of California, Los Angeles, found differences in how self-described liberal and conservative research participants responded to changes in patterns. Participants were asked to tap a keyboard when the letter “M” appeared on a computer monitor and to refrain from tapping when they saw a “W.” The letter “M” appeared four times more frequently than “W,” conditioning participants to press the keyboard on almost every trial. Liberal participants made fewer mistakes than conservatives when they saw the rare “W,” indicating to the researchers that these participants were better able to accept changes or conflicts in established patterns.
The participants were also wired to an electroencephalograph that recorded activity in their anterior cingulate cortex, the part of the brain that detects conflicts between a habitual tendency and a more appropriate response. Liberals were significantly more likely than conservatives to show activity in the brain circuits that deal with conflicts during the experiment, and this correlated with their greater accuracy in the test.
“Social conservatives --” are generally uncomfortable with this kind of change – the kind of societal change that’s been going on since fire and the wheel hit the scene. They cling to the constancy and stability of the Bible, for example, and decry every single thing that – in their view – differs from it, because … anything other than what THEY view as the Bible’s position … causes them significant upset.
But the same people always talk of “personal responsibility.” Well … I’m sorry that society marching on causes such cognitive stress for you, but I would argue that that is NOT society’s responsibility to manage. It’s the social conservatives’ responsibility.
Brains of liberals, conservatives may work differently, study finds
“The arc of the moral universe is long but it bends toward justice.”
–The Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr. (questionable attribution)
It seems like the sole focus of today’s GOP is to bend it back.