Choosy Moms Choose Republican?

I struggle to reach for the generic acetaminophen Pain Reliever on the grocery shelf. The price tag shows a full 30% cheaper than the name-brand, and barring a few filler ingredients, its recipe list is exactly the same; yet, inevitably, what ends up in my shopping cart is Extra Strength Tylenol. For that matter, there’s Creamy Jif Peanut Butter, Unsalted Land of Lakes Butter, Silk Soy Milk, and Tostedos Tortilla Scoop Chips. With food, I enjoy my brands, which according to recent psychological analysis
that makes me pretty conservative politically.

Wait, what?!? I like Kraft Macaroni (edit – I actually prefer to make my own macaroni from scratch, and I abhor Kraft); so, I’m a Reganite? “It is repeatedly shown that conservatives and liberals differ on basic personality traits such as conscientiousness, tolerance for uncertainty, and openness to new ideas.” These differences are now shown to extended to purchasing behavior, expressed in the purchase of trusted name brands over generic or newer products. Specifically, it is this aversion to risk taking and skepticism and preservation of convention that influence these decisions for the conservative.

This is further supported by research data reporting that correlations exist between a person’s liberalism or conservatism, based on the volume of gray matter in the Anterior Cingulate Cortex (ACC) and the Right Amygdala, respectively. Through voxel-based morphometry analyses on MRI scans of 90 healthy young adults, researchers compared the participants self-reported political leanings to the scanned data and found significant trending between volume and ideology.

Neuroimaging has reliably deduced that the ACC portion of the brain plays a functional role in the detection of conflict, error, and other problem-finding mechanisms. Additionally, the right amygdala shows strong correlation to the physiology of fear responses (rapid heartbeat, freezing, and increase stress-induced respiration). Participants that reported stronger liberal identification had significantly higher brain mass in the ACC; likewise, the same group of participants with stronger conservative leanings had higher volumes of gray matter in the right amygdala.