Talking politics? Parts of the brain shut down…

Next time you’re having a political argument with someone and you start thinking “How in the world could they believe that?” you’ll be happy to know the answer has been found.  It turns out that the part of the brain responsible for reasoning pretty much shuts down when comments are made that threaten their preferred political candidate.  This makes it easier for one to stick to claimed beliefs, even when obvious facts show those beliefs to be invalid.

From the article:

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.

[. . .]

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

[tags]Politics, reasoning, logic, brain[/tags]