Neuropolitics and the 2008 presidential elections

A team of neuroscientists published a neuropolitics studies in the NYT (is it me or that's kinda surprising to see someone publish, not report, that in the journal?). The studies will not reinvent political science or social psychology, but it shows how neuroscience are "asking the brain, not the person", to use Camerer's (2004) expression. The studies suggest that Clinton, Giulinani, Edwards all elicit different patterns of emotions, that men and women reacted differently to Clinton, people empathize with Thompson, Mitt Romney elicits anxiety, etc. Here is how the words democrat, republican and independent excite people's brain:

and that is how men and women react to picture of Hillary Clinton:


Related Posts:

• My brain has a politics of its own: neuropolitic musing on values and signal detection
• The Political Brain
• A Neuropolitic look at political psychology

References

• Camerer, C. F., Loewenstein, G., & Prelec, D. (2004). Neuroeconomics: Why Economics Needs Brains. Scandinavian Journal of Economics, 106(3), 555-579.
• This Is Your Brain on Politics (NYT)