According to a new study, political ideologies are associated with certain patterns in brain scans. But what do these patterns really show? A conversation with Simon Eickhoff from Forschungszentrum Jülich.
Professor Eickhoff, MRT scans of the brain are supposed to be able to tell people’s political views. At least that’s the finding of a recently published study by scientists at Ohio State University. You are also doing research in this area. How did your colleagues do it?
Simon Eickhoff: You used so-called functional MRI: You can see which regions of the brain are active. The processes in the brain were recorded over a certain period of time, while the subjects – whose political views had previously been identified through questionnaires and self-assessments – solved various tasks associated with empathy and emotions, among other things. The brain scans were then searched for patterns using algorithms. 170 subjects took part in the study, which is a decent number for such an investigation. But there are still far too few test subjects for a high level of statistical significance.
Nevertheless, the study found evidence of patterns that were significantly more common among people with certain political views. Does this mean that some patterns can be “translated” into a political attitude?
In fact, the patterns of people with certain political views seem to be similar. But that does not mean that it is precisely the political attitude that creates the respective patterns.
Please explain in more detail.
Most of our characteristics are related to many other factors – especially when it comes to a complex construct like political attitudes. Therefore, it is difficult and narrowing to ascribe a pattern specifically to a particular political ideology, even if it appears more frequently in certain political attitudes. Because there are numerous factors that we know have a significant influence on political attitudes and probably also brain scans. And we don’t know whether the patterns found are not more characteristic of certain of these factors, and whether the trend in political attitudes is only a consequence of this.
Which factors have a particularly strong influence on political attitudes?
Studies show that childhood and family in particular have a major influence: Whether you grew up in a conservative, religious home, whether you were brought up in a strict or less strict way, whether you grew up in the country or in the city – all of this also leaves traces in the brain and shapes political attitudes. The social environment outside of the family – both in childhood and later at work – also plays a major role, as does the socio-economic background. And we know from numerous studies in the USA that ethnicity and experiences of discrimination can have both a formative effect on the brain and on political affiliations.
But patterns can still be seen in the brain, despite the complex influencing factors.
It seems that there are certain archetypes, i.e. biographies that are similar to one another and that may have a tendency to produce certain patterns over time. However, the political attitude is only a small part of this – to which the patterns found should not be narrowed down. Otherwise, it would be like seeing a human silhouette and saying, “There’s definitely a hand here.” A hand can also be seen, but it is a whole human being. An observation based on this kind of inference is always prone to error. Also, because these are just tendencies, not fixed characteristics such as hair color. And in any case, there are significantly more factors of variance in biography and neurobiology than there are colors or political views.
How meaningful can conclusions from patterns found in the brain be in relation to political sentiment?
In any case, they do not allow any binding statement – but there are certain tendencies that can be found in the brain, even with complex characteristics such as personality or political views. With the correlation they found, the colleagues at Ohio State University have revealed a kind of indicator of political attitudes in the brain, only that this does not have to be specific to political attitudes, but could reflect many other factors. I think that’s how you have to treat results from brain scans in relation to complex properties in the medium-term future: they don’t give reliable results, but they do show directions. And that can have many uses in the future.
Where for example?
Whenever it comes to getting a better insight into the “inner qualities” of a person. At the doctor’s, in court or, for example, when requesting a pension because of chronic pain. But, importantly, the interpretations of the brain scans are just tendencies that can be included in a complex assessment. A judgment based solely on the results of brain scan analysis will not be possible in the foreseeable future.
Don’t you also see dangers in imagining that this instrument, somewhat more sophisticated, would end up in the hands of an authoritarian state?
Well, the instrument itself is still far too complex and also too imprecise to use it on a large scale. And if it’s just a matter of putting certain people out of business, then in authoritarian states there really isn’t any need for such complex justification.
Christian Heinrich spoke to Simon Eickhoff
Read more: This article first appeared on helmholtz.de.
