People who support authoritarian views have significant differences in brain structures compared to those whose political beliefs are more centrist. This is reported by Futurism, writes UNN.
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It is reported that the team of the University of Zaragoza (Spain) recruited 100 young people - 63 women and 37 men, without mental disorders - aged 18 to 30 years. Along with brain scans using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), participants were asked questions that help identify both right-wing and left-wing authoritarianism and measure how anxious, impulsive, and emotional they are.
According to the researchers, right-wing authoritarians are people who profess conservative ideologies and so-called "traditional values" who advocate "punitive measures of social control," while left-wing authoritarians are interested in "violent overthrow and punishment of existing structures of power and governance in society."
Although participants whose beliefs were more in line with authoritarianism differed significantly from their less authoritarian counterparts, the study also observed some marked differences between brain scans of left-wing and right-wing authoritarian figures.
In an interview with PsyPost, lead author of the study Jesus Adrian-Ventura said that he and his team found that right-wing authoritarianism is associated with a smaller volume of gray matter in the dorsomedial prefrontal cortex - "an area responsible for understanding the thoughts and views of others."
Left-wing authoritarian supporters in this group had less cortical thickness (or the outer layer of the brain) in the right anterior insula, which previous studies have also shown to correlate with moral disgust and the ability to deeper emotional regulation.
The author, who is also a member of the interdisciplinary research group PseudoLab, added that psychological questionnaires completed by the subjects also showed that "both left-wing and right-wing authoritarian leaders act impulsively in emotionally negative situations, with the former tending to be more anxious."
As noted in the article, this is probably the first study to examine the differences between right-wing and left-wing authoritarianism, rather than simply lumping them into one category. The results add new perspectives to understanding the psychological and neurobiological aspects of extremist beliefs that are gaining popularity in today's world.