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January 30, 2006

Notes from Ferdy - My Very Own Study of Brain Function

by Ferdinand T Cat

This story in the Washington Post was featured on the Rush Limbaugh show and the The Drudge Report today. The story makes the following claim:

Studies presented at the conference, for example, produced evidence that emotions and implicit assumptions often influence why people choose their political affiliations, and that partisans stubbornly discount any information that challenges their preexisting beliefs.

The implicit assumptions to which the author refers have been thoroughly documented in Tom Sowell's book A Conflict of Visions. I've discussed the emotional component myself several times (e.g. my analysis of the Valerie Plame scandal). So, I figured this would be a great opportunity for me to once again compare the actual scientific merit of this study to the Washington Post's presentation of the results.

Unfortunately, Bruce has been complaining that I'm too negative, and he wants me to be more positive. So, instead of bashing the study in the Post, I've gone out and conducted my own study. Due to budget constraints, I had to cut a few corners, but I promise you that I've subjected my results to the very same level of care and scrutiny that you've come to expect from modern journalists.

In the diagram above you can see my comparison of the typical liberal brain to the typical conservative brain.

Tragically, I have no confidence that the Washington Post will be picking up my study any time soon, because according to a recent study, partisans stubbornly discount any information that challenges their preexisting beliefs.

Respectfully submitted,

Ferdinand T. Cat

Trackposted to Is It Just My Bias?, Biased Out Loud, Third World Bias, The Land of Bias, Committees of Biased Correspondence, News, Interesting, Biased, Jo's Bias, and Basil's Blog with a Rightward Twist.

# At Mon 5:07 PM | Permalink | Trackback URI | Comments (5) | More Notes from Ferdy

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Comments

Love it.


Posted by: Lyn at January 30, 2006 5:45 PM

If we can only use 10% of our brain at a time, and liberals have 10% of a real brain...


Posted by: Carlos at January 30, 2006 6:57 PM

wOOt, you've just proved the point of the study by showing your extreme prejudice. Haha. A case study.


Posted by: Eric at January 31, 2006 1:04 AM

Brilliiant! :)


Posted by: Sissy Willis at January 31, 2006 6:49 AM

Your prototype of the liberal brain is somewhat innaccurate and could serve to invalidate the entire study -It has according tomy sources (and experience) no inlet and several outlets resulting in its vaccuous state.


Posted by: DL at February 1, 2006 7:40 AM

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