"We did not see any increased activation of the parts of the brain normally engaged during reasoning," said Drew Westen, director of clinical psychology at Emory University. "What we saw instead was a network of emotion circuits lighting up, including circuits hypothesized to be involved in regulating emotion, and circuits known to be involved in resolving conflicts."

Bias on both sides
The test subjects on both sides of the political aisle reached totally biased conclusions by ignoring information that could not rationally be discounted, Westen and his colleagues say.

Then, with their minds made up, brain activity ceased in the areas that deal with negative emotions such as disgust. But activity spiked in the circuits involved in reward, a response similar to what addicts experience when they get a fix, Westen explained.

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

I should go check the logs and see if they incoporated data from the HabitableZone during their study. Let's see, "emory.edu"....I'll get back to you.

I sometimes think of it as the partisan mental black hole. The gravitational pull of the ideology is so strong that thought rays are bent back around before they can escape the mental event horizon and find freedom.

"The result is that partisan beliefs are calcified, and the person can learn very little from new data," Westen said.

Yes indeedy!