4.6 • 1K Ratings
🗓️ 2 October 2023
⏱️ 29 minutes
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Our brain is a wonderful machine, but it can also short-circuit. What happens to us when emotions and politics intersect, when the democratic, listening brain is cut off, or when we succumb to ‘hate speech’? Research using the latest brain scanners shows that the older part of the brain called the amygdala is ‘triggered’ by emotional responses out of proportion to the impacting stimulus. So, perhaps are we after wolves in human clothing? Not necessarily; we have also developed the frontal cortex which the scans show is stimulated by rational argument. What can scanning the brain reveal about our political affiliations? Can the field of neuro-politics improve political discourse or leave us open to manipulation?
Presenter: Matt Qvortrup Producer: Bob Howard Editor: Clare Fordham
Contributors: Barbara Sahakian, Professor of Clinical Neuropsychology at the University of Cambridge Dr Darren Schreiber, Senior Lecturer at Exeter University Skyler Cranmer, Associate Professor at Ohio State University Dahlia Scheindlin, political consultant and public opinion researcher Dr Liya Yu, Columbia University
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0:36.0 | Thank you for downloading this edition of Analysis, the podcast that looks at the ideas behind the news. |
0:42.0 | In this episode, presenter Mack Vortra... looks at what's |
0:43.0 | this episode, presenter Matt Vortrop looks at what scanning people's |
0:46.8 | brains can reveal about their political affiliations. |
0:50.6 | Over 2,000 years ago, the philosopher Plato said that our minds are divided into reason and anger. |
1:00.0 | When we feel left behind, we are here to vote for demagogues he wrote. |
1:06.0 | Now, neuro- Politics, a new branch of study, is trying to discover what scanning the brain can |
1:12.0 | reveal about our political affiliations. |
1:14.0 | Perhaps brain responses can be used to determine which policies we might find attractive. |
1:22.0 | One day, could brain scans even be used to predict elections. |
1:27.0 | I'm Matt Kortrup and in this episode of analysis I'm asking how close we are from being able to do this, if |
1:35.0 | neuro politics can improve political discourse, or if it leaves us open to |
1:39.9 | manipulation from politicians and their advisors. |
1:45.0 | The technology which underpins neuro- Politics is something called an fMRI scanner. |
1:52.0 | You might have heard about MRI scanners which are often used for finding out about health |
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