Confirmation Bias confirmed

The New York Times reports

Using M.R.I. scanners, neuroscientists have now tracked what happens in the politically partisan brain when it tries to digest damning facts about favored candidates or criticisms of them. The process is almost entirely emotional and unconscious, the researchers report, and there are flares of activity in the brain's pleasure centers when unwelcome information is being rejected.

I can't wait until we have continuous, public MRI scanning. That way, when I criticize someone's beliefs, I can say, "See, I got you! Your pleasure centers are being activated. I must have scored a point!"

On the other hand, why critize someone you disagree with, if all it's going to do in the end is give them a high?

Hat tip to Tyler Cowen for the pointer.

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