Menschen ganz rechts und ganz links zeigen auffallend ähnliche Gehirnreaktionen. Menschen mit stärkeren politischen Überzeugungen, unabhängig davon, ob sie liberal oder konservativ waren, zeigten eine erhöhte Aktivität in Gehirnbereichen, die mit der Erkennung von Emotionen und Bedrohungen verbunden sind.

I’ve linked to the news release in the post above. In this comment, for those interested, here’s the link to the peer reviewed journal article:

https://psycnet.apa.org/record/2026-54527-001?doi=1

From the linked article:

**People on the far-right and far-left exhibit strikingly similar brain responses**

A new study suggests that people with strongly held political beliefs, whether liberal or conservative, tend to process political content in strikingly similar ways at a neurological level. The findings, published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology: Attitudes and Social Cognition, indicate that emotional reactions may play a central role in driving ideological extremity.

The participants watched a politically charged segment of the 2016 vice-presidential debate between Tim Kaine and Mike Pence while undergoing brain scans in a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) machine. At the same time, the researchers recorded physiological responses—specifically, galvanic skin conductance, which measures emotional arousal through changes in sweat gland activity. Eye-tracking was also used to assess where participants focused their attention.

Analysis of the brain imaging data revealed a consistent pattern: **participants with stronger political beliefs, regardless of whether they were liberal or conservative, showed increased activity in brain areas associated with emotion and threat detection**. These included the amygdala, known for processing fear; the periaqueductal gray, which is involved in defensive behaviors; and the posterior superior temporal sulcus, a region linked to interpreting social cues and understanding others’ intentions.