Red Brain, Blue Brain: Republicans and Democrats Process Risk Differently, Research Finds

Link to the article: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/02/130213173131.htm
Link to the study: http://www.plosone.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0052970

Image courtesy of Schreiber D, Fonzo G, Simmons AN, et al.

    This study finds that, while liberals and conservatives don't necessarily act differently in a simple betting game, their brains will make use of entirely different sections when estimating risk. For the test itself, each subject was shown a presentation and given a button. During the presentation, one of three numbers would show up; either a 20, 40, or 80. If the button were pressed during a 20, the subject would gain 20 cents. If the button were pressed on a 40 or 80, the subject would gain or lose that amount randomly. Conservatives, when shown this situation, processed their response using the right amygdala, which is responsible for the fight-or-flight response in mammals, and in humans is also specifically responsible for creating negative emotions (whereas the left side processes rewards). Liberals, when faced with the same situation, reacted using the left insula. The left insula is used for processing self awareness and decision-making in most social situations. The most striking thing about this conclusion is that this brain activity is better than one's parents' political affiliation for predicting one's own political affiliation by a factor of about 20%.

Nature of Science Themes:
1.) Science is collaborative. This study specifically mentions four researchers (though the list is incomplete) as well as an editor and 82 subjects.
5.) Data can be influenced by personal opinion. The researchers and editors have tried to make their stufy as balanced as possible, to the point where they mention twice that they have no interest beyond that of science ("The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript." and "The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.")

-Sebastian Wolf

By the way, this isn't that relevant to the study itself nor to Biology, but this study was released under the Creative Commons license, which is awesome.