Back to Search
Start Over
Alteration of Political Belief by Non-invasive Brain Stimulation
- Source :
- Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, Vol 9 (2016)
- Publication Year :
- 2015
-
Abstract
- People generally have imperfect introspective access to the mechanisms underlying their political beliefs, yet can confidently communicate the reasoning that goes into their decision making process. An innate desire for certainty and security in ones beliefs may play an important and somewhat automatic role in motivating the maintenance or rejection of partisan support. The aim of the current study was to clarify the role of the DLPFC in the alteration of political beliefs. Recent neuroimaging studies have focused on the association between the DLPFC (a region involved in the regulation of cognitive conflict and error feedback processing) and reduced affiliation with opposing political candidates. As such, this study used a method of non- invasive brain simulation (tRNS) to enhance activity of the bilateral DLPFC during the incorporation of political campaign information. These findings indicate a crucial role for this region in political belief formation. However, enhanced activation of DLPFC does not necessarily result in the specific rejection of political beliefs. In contrast to the hypothesis the results appear to indicate a significant increase in conservative values regardless of participant’s initial political orientation and the political campaign advertisement they were exposed to.
- Subjects :
- media_common.quotation_subject
050105 experimental psychology
Biology and political orientation
lcsh:RC321-571
03 medical and health sciences
Behavioral Neuroscience
Politics
belief formation
0302 clinical medicine
political neuroscience
Cognitive dissonance
0501 psychology and cognitive sciences
Decision-making
Association (psychology)
unconscious processing
lcsh:Neurosciences. Biological psychiatry. Neuropsychiatry
Biological Psychiatry
media_common
Original Research
cognitive dissonance
05 social sciences
Cognition
goal directed reasoning
Certainty
Psychiatry and Mental health
Neuropsychology and Physiological Psychology
Neurology
Brain stimulation
transcranial random noise stimulation (tRNS)
dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC)
Psychology
Social psychology
030217 neurology & neurosurgery
Neuroscience
Subjects
Details
- ISSN :
- 16625161
- Volume :
- 9
- Database :
- OpenAIRE
- Journal :
- Frontiers in human neuroscience
- Accession number :
- edsair.doi.dedup.....d8367010e630378163883902d24f7e60