Alteration of Political Belief by Non-invasive Brain Stimulation

Abstract

People generally have imperfect introspective access to the mechanisms underlying their political beliefs, yet can confidently communicate the reasoning that goes into their decision making process. An innate desire for certainty and security in ones beliefs may play an important and somewhat automatic role in motivating the maintenance or rejection of partisan support. The aim of the current study was to clarify the role of the DLPFC in the alteration of political beliefs. Recent neuroimaging studies have focused on the association between the DLPFC (a region involved in the regulation of cognitive conflict and error feedback processing) and reduced affiliation with opposing political candidates. As such, this study used a method of non-invasive brain simulation (tRNS) to enhance activity of the bilateral DLPFC during the incorporation of political campaign information. These findings indicate a crucial role for this region in political belief formation. However, enhanced activation of DLPFC does not necessarily result in the specific rejection of political beliefs. In contrast to the hypothesis the results appear to indicate a significant increase in conservative values regardless of participant's initial political orientation and the political campaign advertisement they were exposed to.

A Neurology of the Conservative-Liberal Dimension of Political Ideology

“…83 Another fMRI study of depressed patients showed left rather than right DLPFC activation with heightened preferential processing of negative information, 84 and a positron emission tomography study showed left middle frontal gyrus (DLPFC) activation during a negativity bias condition. 77 Finally, noninvasive stimulation of bilateral DLPFC during the incorporation of political campaign information has resulted in a significant increase in politically conservative values, 85 and transcranial magnetic stimulation of the right, but not left, DLPFC has reduced the rejection of unfair offers when they are in conflict with self-interest. 86 Ultimately, the right DLPFC may have a greater role in mediating emotion-based conflicts and may interact with the right VLPFC, amygdala, and anterior insula in forming the neuroanatomical substrates of a conservative complex.…”

The psychology and neuroscience of partisanship

“…For example, twin studies have found that genetic influences account for roughly 40% of the variation in political ideologies (Hatemi et al, 2014). These biological differences between people with different political views have also been observed in terms of gray matter volume differences in various brain structures (see Chawke & Kanai, 2016;Nam, Jost, & Van Bavel, 2018. This overarching pattern of results has led some to conclude, quite erroneously, that social and political outcomes (such as racism, political orientation, and partisanship) are "hard-wired" (see Jost, Noorbaloochi, & Van Bavel, 2014).…”

The neurobiology of political ideology: Theories, findings, and future directions

“…Similarly, two neuroimaging studies find a positive relationship between conservative identification and left—but not right—dorsolateral prefrontal activity elicited by disgust (Ahn et al., 2014) and threat cues (Nash & Leota, 2022). Finally, a study using non‐invasive brain stimulation of the (bilateral) dlPFC shows that temporarily enhanced dlPFC activity is associated with greater conservatism (Chawke & Kanai, 2016), further suggesting that the relationship between PFC function and ideology is likely dependent on contextual factors, such as an individual's current goals.…”