Do you startle easily?

[kallend 1,623]

Fascinating research:

www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/09/18/AR2008091802265.html?hpid=topnews

...

The only sure way to survive a canopy collision is not to have one.

[SpeedRacer 1]

I believe that it has been sidetracked by the distortion of the definition of "liberal" & "conservative".


Never mind left vs. right: I believe that statists are more fearful, and the brave are more willing to take the risk of "too much" freedom.

Speed Racer
--------------------------------------------------

[Andy9o8 0]

As a matter of fact, I do startle easi ... AAAAGHH!! .... ..... easily. (Sorry - the cat walked in.) And everyone knows what a rightie Fascist I am.

Maybe it's a false correlation. When ice cream sales go up, so does the rate of violent crime. Ergo ice cream causes violent crime. And everyone knows that the dude in the pickup truck can be counted on to speed and never use his turn signal. He's also pretty likely to smoke. So obviously smoking causes vehicular fucktardedness. And so it goes.

[SpeedRacer 1]

Quote

fucktardedness

holy shit! there's that word again! It must be real now!


You know what? Skydiver might think they're smart. But in reality they're wallowing in a pit of fucktardedness!

Speed Racer
--------------------------------------------------

[labrys 0]

I really wanted to post a witty reply but I'm side-tracked thinking about what a cool, totally descriptive word "startle" is.

That and the mental image of Wile E Coyote about to make a Wile E Coyote shaped crater in something.

Owned by Remi #?

[lawrocket 3]

Quote

fucktardedness

Andy:

Know thy audience, my learned friend. Most people are not comfortable around legalese. You are clearly an attorney of the old breed. Nowadays, young attorneys are trained to avoid such antiquated terminology, though we are familiar with it.

My wife is hotter than your wife.

[akarunway 1]

Quote

Fascinating research:

www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/09/18/AR2008091802265.html?hpid=topnews

And racist too! All whiteys.

I hold it true, whate'er befall;
I feel it, when I sorrow most;
'Tis better to have loved and lost
Than never to have loved at all.

[Andy9o8 0]

Fucktardedness - n. - See Dipshitity

[Nightingale 0]

The study seems to commit a classic logical fallacy: mistaking correlation for causation.

What they fail to recognize is that situations that tend to increase the startle response, such as being the victim of a crime or serving in the military, also tend to increase the likelihood of a conservative point of view.

[nerdgirl 0]

Quote

The study seems to commit a classic logical fallacy: mistaking correlation for causation.

What they fail to recognize is that situations that tend to increase the startle response, such as being the victim of a crime or serving in the military, also tend to increase the likelihood of a conservative point of view.

While some of the secondary & tertiary accounts may make those mistakes, the actual study & the authors don't. One more example of my obsession with primary data.

"Political Attitudes Vary with Physiological Traits" Science 19 September 2008: Vol. 321. no. 5896, pp. 1667 - 1670. (If anyone without access would like a full text version, for educational reasons, PM me.):

"Our data reveal a correlation between physiological responses to threat and political attitudes but do not permit firm conclusions concerning the specific causal processes at work. Particular physiological responses to threat could cause the adoption of certain political attitudes, or the holding of particular political attitudes could cause people to respond in a certain physiological way to environmental threats, but neither of these seems probable. More likely is that physiological responses to generic threats and political attitudes on policies related to protecting the social order may both derive from a common source. Parents could both socialize their children to hold certain political attitudes and condition them to respond in a certain way to threatening stimuli, but conditioning involuntary reflex responses takes immediate and sustained reinforcement and punishment, and it is unlikely that this conditioning varies systematically across political beliefs.

"Alternatively, political attitudes and varying physiological responses to threat may both derive from neural activity patterns, perhaps those surrounding the amygdala. There is a connection between localized activation of the amygdala and aversive startle response (30). Amygdala activity is also crucial in shaping responses to socially threatening images (31, 32) and may be connected to political predispositions. Indeed, given that political and social attitudes are heritable (33–36) and that amygdala activity also has been traced to genetics (37–40), genetic variation relevant to amygdala activity could affect both physiological responses to threat and political attitudes bearing on threats to the social order.

"Our findings suggest that political attitudes vary with physiological traits linked to divergent manners of experiencing and processing environmental threats. Consequently, our research provides one possible explanation for both the lack of malleability in the beliefs of individuals with strong political convictions and for the associated ubiquity of political conflict."

Some secondary sources/reports have appreciated the difference as well:

"The study's authors are quick to point out that these correlations won't necessarily apply across the board, and that the findings don't imply that people take political positions out of fear. (Fear, of course, is not a bad thing — a certain amount of it is necessary for survival.) The point, rather, is that there may be something fundamentally biological about politics."

VR/Marg

Act as if everything you do matters, while laughing at yourself for thinking anything you do matters.
Tibetan Buddhist saying

[kallend 1,623]

Quote

The study seems to commit a classic logical fallacy: mistaking correlation for causation.

What they fail to recognize is that situations that tend to increase the startle response, such as being the victim of a crime or serving in the military, also tend to increase the likelihood of a conservative point of view.

I didn't see any suggestion of causation in the article. And they specifically stated that other factors are at work.

...

The only sure way to survive a canopy collision is not to have one.

[Lindsey 0]

Quote

Quote

The study seems to commit a classic logical fallacy: mistaking correlation for causation.

What they fail to recognize is that situations that tend to increase the startle response, such as being the victim of a crime or serving in the military, also tend to increase the likelihood of a conservative point of view.

I didn't see any suggestion of causation in the article. And they specifically stated that other factors are at work.

And sitting around smoking dope slows your reaction time....lol.

:)
linz

--
A conservative is just a liberal who's been mugged. A liberal is just a conservative who's been to jail

[rushmc 18]

Quote

Quote

Quote

The study seems to commit a classic logical fallacy: mistaking correlation for causation.

What they fail to recognize is that situations that tend to increase the startle response, such as being the victim of a crime or serving in the military, also tend to increase the likelihood of a conservative point of view.

I didn't see any suggestion of causation in the article. And they specifically stated that other factors are at work.

And sitting around smoking dope slows your reaction time....lol.

:)
linz

Dam, say it isnt






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.
.
ah, so!

"America will never be destroyed from the outside,
if we falter and lose our freedoms,
it will be because we destroyed ourselves."
Abraham Lincoln

[Lindsey 0]

My son's going frog giggin' tonight. Am I a Lib or a Neo Con? Surely someone here knows....based on my lifestyle...lol.

Edited to add: I'm also having knee replacement in a little over a week....and I'm paying for it MYSELF.

--
A conservative is just a liberal who's been mugged. A liberal is just a conservative who's been to jail

[warpedskydiver 0]

Have him gig you a new knee, I hear those frogs have remarkable regenerative capabilities.

Mmmmm frog legs.

I hear Kallend likes FROG legs.

[rushmc 18]

Quote

My son's going frog giggin' tonight. Am I a Lib or a Neo Con? Surely someone here knows....based on my lifestyle...lol.

Edited to add: I'm also having knee replacement in a little over a week....and I'm paying for it MYSELF.

I like this thread!!
best wishes on your knee replacement!

"America will never be destroyed from the outside,
if we falter and lose our freedoms,
it will be because we destroyed ourselves."
Abraham Lincoln

[Lindsey 0]

See....Democrats and Republicans (I'm assuming you are both Republicans...lol) really CAN get along. :)

linz

--
A conservative is just a liberal who's been mugged. A liberal is just a conservative who's been to jail

[misaltas 0]

When I clicked on that link, my browser's popup blocker made a 'pop' sound and it scared the shit out of me for a second.

Ohne Liebe sind wir nichts

[kallend 1,623]

Quote

When I clicked on that link, my browser's popup blocker made a 'pop' sound and it scared the shit out of me for a second.

...

The only sure way to survive a canopy collision is not to have one.