A study by Kanai, et.al., published in Curr Biol 2011 demonstrated by fMRI an increase in size/activity in the right amygdala in conservatives as compared to liberals. The amygdala has long been understood as the brain’s “fear center”. Nam, et.al., in a letter published in Nature 2017, found a correlation between the amygdala and attitudes and opinions towards the existing social system. The Washington Post reports on a study not yet published conducted at Yale, which found that individuals, by imagining that they had a superpower of invulnerability, would exhibit more liberal opinions. Oxley, et.al., found in a 2008 study published in Science, that those supporting liberal policies had a reduced response to threatening images and startling noises when compared to those supporting conservative policies.
Kim, et.al., in a study published in 2020 in nature.com Scientific Reports, reports finding that conservatives are more sensitive to threatening situations than liberals. Conservatives, compared to liberals and moderates, had greater psychological resilience and self-regulation capacity that were attributable to greater impulse control and causal reasoning. Stronger intrinsic connectivities between the orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) and precuneus and between the insula and frontal pole/OFC in conservatives were correlated with greater resilience and self-regulation capacity.
Additionally, according to the Pew Research Center, groups which could be loosely designated as “Christian” (including Catholics, Evangelical Protestants, Black Protestants, and Orthodox Christians) were overwhelmingly found to be more conservative than liberals. Those with a Christian spiritual faith recognize from multiple Bible references the importance of the Fear of the Lord. That Fear of the Lord leads one to understand the importance of honoring God and maintaining a healthy respect for God and his commandments. These literal Biblical moral teachings are stored in the brain, processed by the amygdala in the understanding that the Fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. Since liberals are less likely to designate themselves as “Christian”, it is logical to conclude they also lack a proportionate “fear of God”. Lacking this fear of God, their political opinions are not filtered by an absolute Biblical moral code. So we wind up with a social and legal acceptance of things like abortion, same sex marriages, transvestites, men using the ladies restrooms because they feel like a woman today, hatred (e.g., of those who disagree with their liberal opinions) and many other abominations to God. With no fear of the judgment of God processed in and through the amygdala, morality becomes secondary to political expediency. Their political agenda becomes their god. With no fear of their opposition or of a true God, they act with impunity against their opponents, jailing Capitol trespassers while releasing murderers and rapists on their own recognizance. No fear.
This phenomenon could also explain the reduced concern with terrorism from liberals (e.g., Hillary Clinton and Benghazi), no fear of open borders (e.g., Joe Biden and the catch and release plan, with no concern for social distancing, masks, or COVID testing), no fear of budget deficits, reduced military strength, bankrupting social security, drugs flooding across our southern border, human trafficking, increased crime and poverty in democratically controlled cities. No fear that pressing for socialism will turn this country into Venezuela or Cuba. No fear that government take-over of health care could possibly make health care worse (…the VA health care, need I say more). I could continue, but will let you finish the list. No fear that green energy policies will result in energy shortages, food shortages, starvation, and a crippling of society. It could also explain a tendency to rush into a policy or action that intends to address a problem without a thorough consideration as to whether the action will actually help (rather than exacerbate) the problem, or have unintended negative side effects (e.g., will a $15/hour minimum wage reduce poverty, or make it worse by increasing unemployment). Expanded unemployment benefits have left companies with a lack of workers. When companies can’t get workers, they can’t produce goods and services. When goods and services are in short supply, prices go up. This is what happens when emotions rather than logic drive policy decisions. Ask Argentina how things are working out for them.
Liberals do exhibit increases in size/activity in the anterior cingulate cortex, likely related to increases in liberal empathy/sympathy. This could explain phenomena like sanctuary cities. But since the empathy/sympathy is not accompanied by a proportional amount of a fear response, crime committed by illegals seeking sanctuary is less of a concern. It is hard to say which came first, the “chicken or the egg”. Are liberals inherently lacking in amygdala activity/volume, or is the lack of amygdala secondary to the political opinion.
Schreiber reports in his study published in PLoS One. 2013; 8(2): e52970, that when facing a risk-taking task, conservatives demonstrated increased brain activity in the right amygdala, compared to liberals who exhibited increased brain activity in the left posterior insula (near the temporal-parietal junction). Republicans more strongly activate their right amygdala, associated with orienting attention to external cues. Democrats have higher activity in their left posterior insula, associated with perceptions of internal physiological states. The insular cortex is important for representation of internal bodily cues crucial for subjective feeling states and interoceptive awareness. The results of this study provide evidence that when confronted with a situation which should direct attention to external threats and concerns, the liberal physiologic response is to direct brain attention internally. This could explain some of the “so what” attitude of the liberal local governmental authorities to the “peaceful protests” in Minneapolis, Seattle, and Portland which resulted in tremendous destruction of property, injuries, and loss of life. When the threats were internalized as in the January 6 “invasion” of the US Capitol building, these internalized threats created much more brain concern than did the external and more severe damages in those other locations.
The so-called “safe zones” that many schools and universities have created in order to protect the students from having to confront opposing opinions and potential conflict could be a contributing factor in underdeveloped amygalas. Some fear is innate but much fear is a learned process, whereby memories of a painful or unpleasant experience are stored for the purpose of avoiding similar experiences in the future. This is a process which requires activity in the amygdala. As we protect young people from such conflicts and experiences, it is possible that we stunt the growth of the amygdala, thus creating a “liberal” brain, deficient in amygdala development. It would be an interesting area for further research. I also wonder what the results would be if similar amygdala studies were conducted in other countries with different political and social system structures. I could conjecture on the results, but I suppose you can do that yourself without my assistance.
The obvious, or maybe NOT so obvious danger to having a lack of fear of God (or of anything that we should be afraid of for that matter) is the danger that it presents to society. Currently at the southern border of the US with Mexico, tens of thousands of immigrants are entering the US. While for two years this country, and most of the civilized world has been struggling to cope with the COVID-19 pandemic by employing varying degrees of lockdown, social distancing/social isolation, mask mandates, vaccine mandates, business closures, etc., apparently the same liberal dogma that has opened up this southern border also seems to have no fear of the actual and well documented instances of this disease in the immigrant population. There is no testing, lockdown, no social isolation, no quarantine for this group. Either the liberal mentality is to intentionally spread the disease, or they simply lack the ability to fear the same thing that they have so capably caused millions of other Americans to fear. Notice how many liberals, while preaching mask mandates, appear in public places without masks? Maybe they want to intentionally cause the pandemic to again rage out of control to perpetuate their irrational and worthless infringement of the guarantees of liberty contained within the US Constitution. Or maybe they simply want to bankrupt this country (again with no fear of the consequences of bankrupting a nation). And why are they so adamant about mandating a vaccine which has proven even after multiple boosters to fail to protect against a disease, and recent studies show actually suppresses the immune system to make individuals MORE susceptible to the disease.
Deuteronomy 25 tells us about the Amalakites who had no fear of God. We are told that their memory will be blotted out. Anybody seen any Amalakites lately? I pray that this country does not follow their example.
Lost in the Fog 