Link between religious fundamentalism and brain damage established by scientists

[catbyte]

December 30, 2019
By Bobby Azarian

A study published in the journal Neuropsychologia has shown that religious fundamentalism is, in part, the result of a functional impairment in a brain region known as the prefrontal cortex. The findings suggest that damage to particular areas of the prefrontal cortex indirectly promotes religious fundamentalism by diminishing cognitive flexibility and openness—a psychology term that describes a personality trait which involves dimensions like curiosity, creativity, and open-mindedness.

Religious beliefs can be thought of as socially transmitted mental representations that consist of supernatural events and entities assumed to be real. Religious beliefs differ from empirical beliefs, which are based on how the world appears to be and are updated as new evidence accumulates or when new theories with better predictive power emerge. On the other hand, religious beliefs are not usually updated in response to new evidence or scientific explanations, and are therefore strongly associated with conservatism. They are fixed and rigid, which helps promote predictability and coherence to the rules of society among individuals within the group.

snip

According to Dr. Grafman and his team, since religious fundamentalism involves a strict adherence to a rigid set of beliefs, cognitive flexibility and open-mindedness present a challenge for fundamentalists. As such, they predicted that participants with lesions to either the vmPFC or the dlPFC would score low on measures of cognitive flexibility and trait openness and high on measures of religious fundamentalism.

The results showed that, as expected, damage to the vmPFC and dlPFC was associated with religious fundamentalism. Further tests revealed that this increase in religious fundamentalism was caused by a reduction in cognitive flexibility and openness resulting from the prefrontal cortex impairment. Cognitive flexibility was assessed using a standard psychological card sorting test that involved categorizing cards with words and images according to rules. Openness was measured using a widely-used personality survey known as the NEO Personality Inventory. The data suggests that damage to the vmPFC indirectly promotes religious fundamentalism by suppressing both cognitive flexibility and openness.

snip

https://www.rawstory.com/2019/12/link-between-religious-fundamentalism-and-brain-damage-established-by-scientists/

Here's the link to the study:

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28392301

[Scotch-Irish]

1. And they gerrymander voting districts to "protect themselves"

Not good.

[WhiskeyGrinder]

2. Christ, RawStory is such a grift.

They essentially plagiarized themselves here, which is super meta for them.

https://www.rawstory.com/2019/12/link-between-religious-fundamentalism-and-brain-damage-established-by-scientists/

https://www.rawstory.com/2019/01/link-brain-damage-religious-fundamentalism-established-scientists/

[Cartoonist]

3. Who needs a study?

If someone says they pray to pink elephant unicorns, we call them crazy. When they say they pray to God, we have to respect their beliefs.

[erronis]

15. Humor me. I pray to a spaghetti-haired slimy monster (FSM). Are my beliefs respected?

I hope not, since I do this to pull cultists' chains.

[bitterross]

4. It's a clickbait and BS to imply they ALL have brain damage.

The study didn't say that ALL people who have fundamentalist religious beliefs have brain damage. It said:

We hypothesized that the vmPFC represents diverse religious beliefs and that a vmPFC lesion would be associated with religious fundamentalism, or the narrowing of religious beliefs.

Basically, that people who DO have certain types of brain damage WOULD probably have fundamentalist beliefs.

It would be very dumb to assert that every fundamentalist has brain damage. I don't disagree that they often act like they have brain damage, but that is not the root cause for most of them. Most of them have just been indoctrinated and brainwashed since birth.

[Major Nikon]

6. The OP didn't say that ALL people who have fundamentalist religious beliefs have brain damage either

Nor was it implied. It stated there's a link between the two because there is a link between the two.

Ironically your assertion goes one step significantly farther:

Basically, that people who DO have certain types of brain damage WOULD probably have fundamentalist beliefs.

The study does not either state or imply this, nor does the OP.

[bitterross]

9. Hence, the use of the word "imply."

I didn't say that the OP said that explicitly. The title implies it to any casual reader scanning the headlines. Just look at the other comments if you have any doubt that is the overarching reaction.

[Major Nikon]

17. And yet you implied as much in your next sentence

Which is why that one is the one I mimicked in my subject line, because it struck me as the impression you were trying to give. If the OP is as you believe trying to suggest something that isn't literally true, then you are surely guilty of the same offense.

Had the OP not copied the name of the article verbatim and had instead copied the name of the study verbatim, I suspect the reaction would have been the same. If anything the title of the study is even more suggestive to those who don't care enough to comprehend what it's actually saying.

[bitterross]

20. Reading comprehension issues much?

I didn't imply anything. I stated what the study abstract stated.

[Major Nikon]

25. "The study didn't say that ALL people who have fundamentalist religious beliefs have brain damage."

https://www.democraticunderground.com/100212825147#post4

[bitterross]

28. Reading comprehension skills don't seem totally lacking.

Not sure how it can be read any other way. It seems most everyone else read it as I did.

https://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1002&pid=12827267

https://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1002&pid=12825401

I don't understand why someone would go to such trouble to defend it as not implying exactly what I said it implies.

[Major Nikon]

29. Oh look, another condescending reply

Just more proof you aren’t worth the time, as if more were needed.

[bitterross]

30. In response to judgmental ones

Go figure.

[wryter2000]

27. The title suggests exactly what you're saying

Furthermore, their statement about what they call "empirical beliefs" being moderated to include new information has not been proven at all. Quite the opposite. People continue to believe that Ukraine hacked the 2016 election despite all evidence that isn't true. People hang onto beliefs despite contradictory evidence.

[sdfernando]

5. So this study could lead some

to believe that religion is a mental disease. Well not religion per se, but fundamentalism...or evangelical??

[Major Nikon]

7. It's not really saying that

What it's saying is that you don't have to have a mental disease to be a religious fundamentalist, but it's a great start.

It's rather like saying you don't have to be a racist shitstain to be a Republican, but it's a great start.

[Arthur_Frain]

13. Fundies/Evangelicals Sadists.

They derive pleasure from their beliefs that other sinners will be punished.

Another conclusion that could be drawn. Proving that it’s a mental illness is a higher bar, I think there’s enough studies out there to indicate that we are almost hard wired for belief in a higher power or hereafter, and it’s tough to draw the line between an obsession and a mental illness or disease.

I think we can all agree that christianity is pretty sadistic though.

[sdfernando]

18. I would agree

Christianity as humans have practiced it over the centuries can be quite sadistic.

[Mopar151]

8. In other news

Water is still "wet" when liquid.

[Jim_S]

10. The Onion?

When I first started reading this I was waiting for the 'reveal' that it was an Onion article.

[Jakes Progress]

11. No. Just an effort by some that

will help to reelect trump.

[Owl]

12. Fascinating study.

[Jedi Guy]

22. No, you essentially don't. That's just a bizarre assertion or assumption on your part.

Even the full immersion baptisms that some evangelicals prefer only involve being underwater for a few seconds. It's basically just a ducking. When infants are baptized, it almost always involves the clergy-person simply dripping or trickling water on the forehead and sometimes on the chest above the heart. I've only ever heard of Orthodox denominations performing immersion baptisms for infants.

No baptism that I've ever seen or heard of involves immersion that lasts long enough to cause brain damage.

[roamer65]

16. So now we can develop tests to start sorting them out.

Good. Then we can start persecuting the right ones.

Since they fantasize about being persecuted so much, I say we make their dreams come true.

[I_UndergroundPanther]

23. Yeah..make thier nightmare eat them alive

[certainot]

19. it's sex on the wrong brain. caused by diverting sex energy through the left side of the brain

most humans have that problem but there's a genetic predisposition in some people

originally human ancestors, like chimps, were about 50-50 right and left handed but sex on the wrong brain gave the right handers an advantage in times of conflict because they were sending impatient satisfaction-demanding reproductive energy - to the side of the brain that's supposed to be patient and objective - where logic and math are slightly more emphasized - increasing greed and the need for certainty. that increases fear of just about anything . eventually we stabilized at 90% right handed about 100,000 years ago as populations increased. but the sowb got really bad the last few 1000 as we began to delay the age of reproduction and the right handed masturbation really got bad. luckily we got some democracy but along the way humans selected for brain structure that was more susceptible to the disease, with 'old world' european genes being more sowb friendly than 'south americana and african 'new world'.

from an old Jan 8, 2019, diary

THE WALL creates certainty for certainty-addicted sex-on-the-wrong-brain authoritarians

Trump advisor Sam Nunberg says “the wall” was a mnemonic device used to help Trump emphasize the immigration issue. As a ‘builder’, Trump could identify with a big solid simple wall.

‘The wall’ is also a device used to create certainty where there is none. It helps authoritarians deny reality and judge the world in absolutes. One side or the other. Bad brown hordes on that side and good white Amurcans on this side. Chaos on that side, order on this side.

A well known psych study identifies the need to avoid uncertainty as the main motivator common to conservatives, authoritarians, and fascists. They need certainty more than liberals. The stronger the need for certainty the easier harmless uncertainty turns into anxiety and fear.

That fear motivates authoritarians to impose and accept order, control, and conformity — to reduce uncertainty, unpredictability, diversity, and chaos. It motivates them to reduce life to simple absolutes and help them judge the world in black or white, good or evil, right or wrong, this side or that side.

The “wall” is a perfect example of the authoritarian power dynamic at work. ‘Leader’ Trump points with great certitude to the threat and chaos on the other side of the border — “they’re bad” — and offers his certainty addicted followers the simple certain fix they need to feel safe again. All the other elements in the discussion, like ladders, tunnels, surveillance technologies, alternative strategies for reducing migration, etc., represent stressful complicated uncertainties that must be avoided.

Why do authoritarians have this irrational need for certainty?

Humans evolved over hundreds of thousands of years surrounded by the never-ending infinite uncertainty of nature.

Sex on the wrong brain, or sowb for short, explains the irrational need for certainty as a mental disorder that developed as a bi-product of civilization, when we began delaying the age of reproduction.

Sex on the wrong brain happens when impatient satisfaction-demanding reproductive urges are diverted to/associated with brain functions that require patience and objectivity.

Sowb is easier to explain if brain functions are simplified to the left or right side.

While most brain functions involve both sides of the brain there are trends in lateralization. Language, for instance, is mostly a left side function. There are exceptions but for centuries the left side of the brain has been associated with functions like logic and mathematics, for instance, and the right side with emotion, creativity, and orgasm.

Authoritarians like Trump are diverting and trapping powerful impatient reproductive ‘energy’ on the wrong side of the brain, where it interferes with logic and problem solving and demands premature conclusion, finality, and certainty.

But nothing is final or certain — that is a fantasy. At first logic resists but the stress and fear builds until it’s unbearable. Logic finally opens the gate to the creative right side of the brain to help it deny reality and rationalize the irrational. That’s when some of those reproductive impulses are finally released to seek pleasure on the right side, where they were supposed to go in the first place.

So there is a reward for being a liar and idiot. That is the satisfaction of certainty.

Unfortunately, without the sex education that authoritarians resist, most humans will learn sex with the right hand. The right hand is connected to and controlled by the left side of the brain, burning in neural connections that can last a lifetime.

Thats’ why this jackoff shut down the government.


Other symptoms of sex on the wrong brain include ignorance, greed, fascism, misogyny, racism, sexual dysfunction….

90% of humans are right handed. In most modern human societies sowb has been normalized and its symptoms often dismissed as “human nature”.

Most modern humans have sowb but within the wide spectrum of human genetic and experiential diversity some people and populations are more susceptible to it than others. Some of its symptoms, such as greed or increased suspicion of strangers, could provide short term competitive advantage and survival value that may have selected for sowb-susceptible gene pools.

In authoritarian societies sowb is rewarded. By design or default sexual repression increases sowb levels, prevents its diagnosis, and hides the simple preventive action.

Those who are good at denying reality and rationalizing the irrational and can help others discover the pleasure of certainty in the face of overwhelming uncertainty may become leaders.

Symptoms may be reduced if there is a healthy regular use of creativity and emotion and ongoing cooperation between the two sides of the brain. While most liberals also have some sowb too, those reproductive impulses may be more likely to wander through the left side and find their way over to the right side to fuel emotion, creativity to woo a mate, sex, orgasm, and reproduction.

Adapted from Sex On the Wrong Brain by Ard Falten 2016

Political Conservatism as Motivated Social Cognition John T. Jost John T. Jost, Arie W. Kruglanski, Jack Glaser, Frank J. Sulloway 2003

[I_UndergroundPanther]

24. I'm ambidextrous..

What does that make me? Lol.

[certainot]

26. lucky i suppose, like when you break an arm.....

i understand there's a wide range between totally left and totally right dominant

i think hitler was left handed? there are people with hemisphere's switched. and there are a lot of different factors but over large populations maybe that's why most of the most violent frightened authoritarians are men - women can use two hands or the natural hand more easily and the guys are stuck hitchhiking to the moon as fast as possible hiding in the bathroom scared of getting caught etc

that's human nature now....

[backscatter712]

21. Fundies? Behaving like they've had prefrontal lobotomies? I'm shocked! n/t