Left-right brain issues
by WonkoKevin
News today that conservatives and liberals appear to differ in brain function: “The brain neurons of liberals and conservatives fire differently when confronted with tough choices, suggesting that some political divides may be hard-wired, according a study released Sunday… Conservatives tend to crave order and structure in their lives, and are more consistent in the way they make decisions. Liberals, by contrast, show a higher tolerance for ambiguity and complexity, and adapt more easily to unexpected circumstances.”
When we were putting together Wonkosphere during the summer, I had the opportunity to view over 3000 political blogs in a short amount of time (many of the blogs we visited were “political” but not candidate-focused, so they were not included in the Wonkosphere directory).
After a while, I could pretty much guess whether a blog was conservative or liberal just by observing how it looked, ignoring the content and blogroll. So if, according to this recent research, conservatives and liberals do indeed tend to differ in brain function, here is how this difference appears to manifest itself in the political blogosphere:
1. Conservative political bloggers like big pictures in their logo. There’s the ever-present pirate/colonial theme typified by Captain’s Quarters, the great scifi-type logo of Atlas Shrugs, and the kinda scary Rachel Lucas. Liberal bloggers tend to keep their logos pretty simple, perhaps exemplified best by Juan Cole’s Informed Comment. By presenting a strong visual image, conservatives reduce the reader’s ambiguity about what the site is about. Conversely, liberals allow room for ambiguity in the scope of their blog by using text-only for their logo.
2. As pointed out by Talk Left a few years ago, political blogging is still primarily a male thing, and a female blogger is much more likely to be conservative than liberal.
3. Liberals put a lot more ads on their blogs than conservatives. Liberals are able to live with the potential conflict between their message in the left-hand column and the ads in the right-hand column. Conservatives generally believe that ads distract from the focused message.
4. Conservatives write solo, which gives them tight control over the message, and more coherence in discourse. Liberals write in teams, which gives them more rich and diverse discourse, but discourse that is also less focused.
