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department of silly, over-interpreted research

http://www.latimes.com/news/science/la-s…

…Analyzing the data, Sulloway said liberals were 4.9 times more likely than conservatives to show activity in the brain circuits that deal with conflicts and were 2.2 times more likely to score in the top half of the distribution for accuracy.

Sulloway said the results could explain why President Bush demonstrates a single-minded commitment to the Iraq war and Sen. John F. Kerry, the liberal Massachusetts Democrat who opposed Bush in the 2004 presidential race, was accused of being a flip-flopper for changing his mind about the conflict.

Based on the results, he said, liberals could be expected to more readily accept new social, scientific or religious ideas…

Ugh.

Here we go again.

Question: would the desire of left-wing politicians to embrace economic policies which have been seen as counterproductive by everyone with an economics degree for 75 years be an example of “more readily accepting new social, scientific or religious ideas”, or would be it be better described as “single-minded commitment” ?

This entry was posted on Sunday, September 9th, 2007 at 7:55 pm and is filed under General. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

3 Responses to “department of silly, over-interpreted research”

  1. Joseph Hertzlinger Says:
    September 9th, 2007 at 10:00 pm

    This is not in accordance with stereotype. According to stereotype, conservatives are supposed to be slower to act.

    OTOH, the sample size was only 43 so this was probably bullbleep anyway.

  2. Joshua W. Burton Says:
    September 10th, 2007 at 3:20 pm

    to embrace economic policies which have been seen as counterproductive by everyone with an economics degree for 75 years

    ** splash **

    (Travis jumps over starboard side of Internet … is last seen dog-paddling gamely toward the Coolidge administration. Proud shipmates raise a beer in salute, prepare to throw ring buoy as needed.)

  3. Joseph Hertzlinger Says:
    September 11th, 2007 at 12:14 am

    “Over the starboard side of the Internet” would make a good name for a blog.