Many conservatives have a loose relationship with facts. The right-wing denial of what most people think of as accepted reality starts with political issues: As recently as 2016, 45 percent of Republicans still believed that the Affordable Care Act included “death panels” (it doesn’t). A 2015 poll found that 54 percent of GOP primary voters believed then-President Obama to be a Muslim (…he isn’t).
Why are conservatives so susceptible to misinformation? The right wing’s disregard for facts and reasoning is not a matter of stupidity or lack of education. College-educated Republicans are actually more likely than less-educated Republicans to have believed that Barack Obama was a Muslim and that “death panels” were part of the ACA. And for political conservatives, but not for liberals, greater knowledge of science and math is associated with a greater likelihood of dismissing what almost all scientists believe about the human causation of global warming.___
In fact, there is a scientific explanation. The tonsils of the brain of conservative voters are approximately the size of a sesame seed, that is, slightly larger than those of progressive voters, according to a study published in the journal Cell Press iScience.
The amygdala controls the perception and understanding of threats and uncertainty in the face of risk, so it makes a lot of sense that people more sensitive to these issues have a greater need for security, something that usually coincides with more conservative political ideas.
The relationship between the size of the amygdala and conservatism also depended on the political party with which the individual was identified.
Tonsils of the brain?
Surgical tech here: …yeah my bad. I’ll leave it to the surgeon next time.