These results suggest that the biological and neurological roots of our political preferences run much deeper than previously thought.

Scientists have shown that using brain scans they can predict a person’s political preference surprisingly well. The remarkable findings can be read in the journal PNAS Nexus† Using advanced techniques, the team managed to read from the brain whether someone is liberal or conservative.

Study

The study examined 174 healthy adults performing standard tasks while inside an MRI scanner. The brain scans were then analyzed using advanced artificial intelligence techniques and supercomputers. “None of the tasks the subjects performed was designed to provoke biased responses,” said study researcher Seo Eun Yang. “But we found that we could tell from the brain scans whether they identify more with liberalism or with conservatism.”

Tasks

In particular, some of the tasks performed appeared to betray the political leanings of the participants. One of these was the rewards task, where participants could win or lose money based on how quickly they pressed a button. Remarkably, through this task, the researchers succeeded in accurately predicting political extremism—thus determining who identified themselves as very conservative or very liberal. During the empathy task, participants were shown pictures of people with neutral, happy, sad, and fearful faces. And only this task turned out to be significantly associated with a more moderate ideology.

“These results suggest that political thinking may be closely linked to emotion and your emotional response,” said study researcher James Wilson. “In addition, however, more research needs to be done to understand the relationship between the reward task and extreme political views.”

sit still

But the political preference of the participants was not only revealed through the tasks performed. Even when the participants were asked to sit still and think about nothing out of the ordinary, the resulting brain scans showed a link with political affiliation. “Even without any stimulus, the brain can tell us a person’s political orientation,” Wilson says. The study shows that activity in specific brain regions – namely in the amygdala, inferior frontal gyrus and hippocampus – is most strongly associated with political persuasion.

Roots

These results suggest that the biological and neurological roots of our political preferences run much deeper than previously thought. “Although we found a link between certain brain activity and political preference in this study, we can’t explain what causes it,” said study researcher Skyler Cranmer. “What we also don’t know is whether that brain activity is there because of the ideology people choose or vice versa; that the ideology of people is caused by the specific brain activity. It could also be a combination of both.”

The study is the largest to date to examine subjects’ political preferences using MRI scans of the brain. Moreover, the new method appears to be a much more effective way of predicting a person’s political preference than existing models, which are mainly based on the parents’ vote choice. “Can we understand political behavior just by looking at the brain? The answer is quite a resounding ‘yes’,” concludes Cranmer.