Scientists Scanned the Brains of Authoritarians and Found Something Weird (futurism.com)

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[-] Sickos@hexbear.net 10 points 1 day ago

As the researchers defined them, right-wing authoritarians are people who ascribe to conservative ideologies and so-called "traditional values" who advocate for "punitive measures for social control," while left-wing authoritarians are interested in "violently overthrow[ing] and [penalizing] the current structures of authority and power in society."

Not that I believe the political compass is a valid representation, but whatever definition these folks are using is even weirder. Then again, they agree with Engels that revolutions are authoritarian by nature, so maybe i'm the wrong one.

{ billie-eilish-anarchist |What?} From the paper: "LWA anti-hierarchical aggression was negatively related to the insular thickness"

I find it hard to believe that leftists would be associated with less empathy--but empathy is a very flexible word in psychology.

[-] Sickos@hexbear.net 8 points 1 day ago

Ah, here we go, quote from the study:

Importantly, the right anterior insula is strongly related with affective empathy

Disclaimer: not a shrink and I generally believe most "social" sciences are unworthy of the title, but I really do like to read

They cite studies that do fMRIs to test cognitive vs affective empathy; more recent trends in psychology/neurology tend toward defining more than two kinds of empathy; most often using cognitive, affective/emotional, and compassionate.

Cognitive empathy: detecting and analyzing the emotional state of another
Affective/Emotional empathy: experiencing the emotional state of another or tying it to one's own experiences
Compassionate empathy: a desire or drive to alleviate another's emotional distress

Compassion is a big-brain thing--as in it requires a bunch of the brain bits working together, instead of a couple areas firing up.