Synchronicity In The News

Yesterday afternoon while discussing politics with a friend I commented that I was bothered somewhat with my inability to understand how my observations and resultant interpretation of a given event (eg. El Presidente's recent bad-touch incident with the German Chancellor) were so at odds with others. Are these 'others' so blinded by hero worship that they are unable to engage any objectivity?

Today's WashPost conveniently provided me some food for thought on that very topic.

From the article "How the Brain Helps Partisans Admit No Gray" ;

In an experiment that pols may want to note closely, researchers recently plopped 10 Republicans and 10 Democrats into scanners that measure changes in brain-blood oxygenation. Such changes are thought to be linked to increases or decreases in particular areas of brain activity.[...]

When Republicans saw Kerry (or Democrats saw Bush) there was increased activation in brain areas called the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, which is near the temple, and the anterior cingulate cortex, which is in the middle of the head. Both these regions are involved in regulating emotions.[...]More straightforwardly, Republicans and Democrats also showed activation in two other brain areas involved in negative emotion, the insula and the temporal pole.[...]

The result reflects a larger phenomenon in which people routinely discount information that threatens their preexisting beliefs, said Emory University psychologist Drew Westen, who has conducted brain-scan experiments that show partisans swiftly spot hypocrisy and inconsistencies -- but only in the opposing candidate.

When presented with evidence showing the flaws of their candidate, the same brain regions that Kaplan studied lighted up -- only this time partisans were unconsciously turning down feelings of aversion and unpleasantness.

Enlightening observation or pseudo-science?