I mentioned (only semi jokingly) recently that liberals were smarter than conservatives. Now I have research that backs me up! Please note, though, that I admit that a) I have a slanted view of this issue, and b) am not a scientist. Real scientists in New York have shown that brain scans could eventually predict voting patterns.

Study participants had to push two buttons based on whether they saw the letter "M" or "W", but each person was shown the same letter 80% of the time. For the other 20% of the time, conservatives only managed to hit the right button 53% of the time, while liberals were better at adapting to the change and hit the correct button 63% of the time. I personally think that being able to quickly adapt to change means you can think better on your feet, adjust arguments to be more appropriate for the conversation at hand, handle crises without melting down, better see someone else's point of view (e.g. empathy), etc. Isn't that a sign of greater intelligence?! I'd bet you Daniel Goleman would think so.

This finding supports another study that conservatives stick to what they know and are habitual creatures (I'd link to the article, but it's only available for a fee). If you are stuck in your ways of thinking and unable to adapt, doesn't that also mean you are less likely to evolve? And therefore less fit to survive? See how this all fits in with my theory?

The article also says that voting predilections could arguably be genetic -- but what about learned behaviours? What about how neural pathways change with different stimuli? I can't imagine that how you vote is *all* genetic. And another caveat (in my opinion) is that the study only contained 43 people -- that seems like an awful small sampling of people. But again...I'm not a scientist.