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Our brain supports a number of functions... movement, thought, the functioning of our body's systems (blood flow, organ function), our senses, and our memory all of which it manages to integrate into what makes us the complex individuals that we are.
Evolutionary studies have shown that as we evolve, the area of our brain that has grown and developed the most are the frontal and temporal areas, which have a greater roles to play in thought, memory, personality and more complex emotion. The area which has remained relatively unchanged (sometimes referred to as our lizard brain) are the areas closer to our brain stem - those which control the basic (but essential) functioning of our body, as well as more raw emotions like fear and anger... our fight or flight mechanism. Depending on the circumstances in which we find ourselves, one or other main area of the brain will come to the fore.
In an interesting study published in Current Biology, it was found that ‘…greater liberalism was associated with increased grey matter volume in the anterior cingulate cortex, (ACC), whereas greater conservatism was associated with increased volume of the right amygdala (RA).’
A large ACC is associated with such things as:
- tolerance for uncertainty;
- effortful, deliberate reasoning; and
- acceptance of change.
Whereas a dominant RA is associated with:
- quick, efficient, and low effort thought processes; and
- fear as a dominant emotion.
In other research, conservative and liberal test subjects all responded well to positive messages, but conservatives responded more powerfully and more sensitively to negative messages.
This is all explained in more detail in the video below
- The negative campaigns typically run by Conservatives are speaking directly to their natural constituents
- Negative campaigns by progressive political parties might attract some traditionally Conservative voters, but they also have the potential to alienate their traditional supporters.
It was also interesting to see that Tony Abbott's best effort to run a positive campaign in the recent Federal election involved him repeating the word 'positive' as often as possible and branding himself 'Positive Tony'.
Perhaps the lesson in all this is.... We shouldn't act contrary to our true nature!