The Science of Your Political Views

While Canadian politics could never match the emotional idiocy of American politics, I’ve seen some pretty heated discussions in the past few weeks.

The Canadian federal election is a couple of weeks away, and with the debates over and done, we are in the home stretch of campaigning.

But how much do attack-ads and party platforms really affect our decision of whom to vote for? Is it possible that our political leanings are more influenced by ‘nature’ than ‘nurture’?

An article in The Globe today discusses the neuroscience behind political viewpoints. As it turns out, the brain of a conservative works differently than that of a liberal.

Dr. David Amodio, Assistant Professor of Psychology at New York University, discussed what these differences were, and how they affect what political party we support.

According to a 2007 paper Dr. Amodio published in Nature Neuroscience:

on average, conservatives show more structured and persistent cognitive styles, whereas liberals are more responsive to informational complexity, ambiguity and novelty.

So conservatives tend to be more, shall we say, stubborn in their political viewpoints than liberals, who tend to gather more information and can be more flexible with their views.

While this may conjure up a stereotypical image of the crotchety old man, so set in his ways that he refuses to vote for anyone but the Conservatives, you should take these studies with a grain of salt.

It is only fair to point out that most of these studies are designed by liberals and may have some bias, and there are certainly many exceptions to these “rules”.

One very interesting study discussed in The Globe conducted at Princeton University:

people were shown black-and-white photographs of the faces of rival political candidates. After viewing each pair of photos for a mere half a second, they were asked which candidate looked more competent. In fact, the candidates they judged to be more competent had won their races two-thirds of the time.

This indicates that, regardless of political leanings, people tend to vote with their emotions as much, if not more, than with their brains. As much as I hate attack ads and staged photo-ops, it would seem the strategists are using science to their advantage.

So whether you identify yourself as a Liberal or a Conservative, NDP or Green, it couldn’t hurt any of us to be aware that the way our brains work can influence how we vote, and we should make an extra effort to stay informed on all the issues; instead of voting for the same party every time just out of habit.

The Physics of Jumping Rope

63rd Annual Meeting of the APS Division of Fluid Dynamics Volume 55, Number 16 

Abstract: CX.00008 : The aerodynamics of jumping rope

Authors:

  Jeffrey Aristoff
    (Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, Princeton University)

  Howard Stone
    (Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, Princeton University)

We present the results of a combined theoretical and experimental investigation of the motion of a rotating string that is held at both ends (i.e. a jump rope). In particular, we determine how the surrounding fluid affects the shape of the string at high Reynolds numbers. We derive a pair of coupled non-linear differential equations that describe the shape, the numerical solution of which compares well with asymptotic approximations and experiments. Implications for successful skipping will be discussed, and a demonstration is possible.

[My comments: The authors built a robot jump rope device and controlled parameters of rope rotation rate, rope density, diameter, length etc. using high speed cameras, they developed equations to describe the motion of the jump rope.

“Our main discovery is how the air-induced drag affects the shape of the rope and the work necessary to rotate it,” says Princeton researcher Jeff Aristoff. “Aerodynamic forces cause the rope to bend in such a way that the total drag is reduced.” (Leaves do this too when they bend out of the wind.) This deflection or twisting is most important in the middle of the rope and the least at the ends. If the rope is too light it might not clear the body of the jumper. (From Physorg.com)

I hope they did a demonstration. My experience is that physics conferences can be a bit stuffy.]