A recent study in Israel used brain scans to explore the differences in empathy between political liberals and conservatives. The researchers found that when imagining other people suffering, liberals showed stronger brain reactions associated with empathy compared to conservatives. This pattern of brain activity was linked to participants’ self-reported political beliefs and their acceptance of right-wing values. The study was published in Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience. …
Both the popular article linked in the op as well as the actual paper seem to use the terms “liberal/conservative” and “leftist/rightist” interchangeably. Quote from the paper:
There were “only” 55 participants, but I assume that if some of them identified as socialist, they would already be included under “leftist/liberal” for the purpose of the study.
I’d be interested in seeing if there’s any difference between liberals and actual leftists. I’d assume so because liberals aren’t egalitarian, but there may not be a measurable difference.
Leftists are just liberals who are bad at math, so it probably would scale them about the same
It’s liberals who keep insisting that trickle down economics is good for the economy actually.