(May 13, 2017 at 11:15 am)drfuzzy Wrote: Yes. "A new study in the journal Neuropsychologia found that lesions in a particular brain region tend to increase religious fundamentalism." Vietnam vets who had lesions in the ventromedial prefrontal cortex had more instances of religious fundamentalism.
http://www.psypost.org/2017/05/study-unc...lism-48860
Now, they admit straight away that the study is limited. (Well, most good ones are, of course. Too many variables creates havoc.) I haven't been able to access the actual study, but the three reports that I have read do not indicate whether any research was done on the family history of the injured veterans. They had to be of the baby-boomer generation, when a greater percentage of Americans were raised in (christian) religious households. Were they all from the same area of the country? (Coastal vs. deep south would be interesting.) I could ask a lot of questions, and we well know that early indoctrination, lack of advanced education, geography, group-think, and fear of death all play into fundamentalism.
But it's an interesting read. The ventromedial prefrontal cortex is the area of the brain that houses openness, curiosity, and flexibility in our belief systems. Damage it, and apparently you hold on more strongly to your beliefs and react with aggression (and fear) when anyone challenges those beliefs.
So "all fundies and zealots have brain damage"?
We knew this already.
Seriously though, I've put this on my list to read later.
Playing Cluedo with my mum while I was at Uni:
"You did WHAT? With WHO? WHERE???"
