This biologist’s A++ takedown of the Daily Mail’s ‘compassionate Conservatives’ headline is magnificently done
Over at the Daily Mail – no, stick with us – they wrote a report about how brain scans had revealed right-leaning folk to be more compassionate. And yes, we were as surprised as you were.
Fortunately for everyone concerned, molecular biologist Emma Monk – @MonkEmma over on Twitter – not only read the article so you don’t have to, she did a little (quite a lot, actually) background check on it, and the thread that followed was simply magnificently done.
1.
Hmmm…… really?
Does that seem plausible?
Let’s take a look, shall we?
1/9 pic.twitter.com/XfeNLXUzQW
— Emma (@MonkEmma) September 19, 2024
2.
So, a study has been done on 928 young Dutch adults to try and replicate a previous study looking at brain scans and political ideologies.
Did it find that “conservatives were more compassionate”?
Well, no. ♀️
2/9 pic.twitter.com/3TLU35CTQa
— Emma (@MonkEmma) September 19, 2024
3.
The previous study, and to a 3 times smaller effect in this study, they found that Right leaning people had a larger amygdala.
So what does that mean?
Does it mean they’re super compassionate??
3/9
— Emma (@MonkEmma) September 19, 2024
4.
The amygdala has a primary role in the processing of memory, decision-making, and emotional responses (including fear, anxiety, and aggression) – Wiki
And from the study – “critical role in the processing of negative, aversive human emotions like sadness, fear, and threat”
4/9 pic.twitter.com/Oyj850yNAv— Emma (@MonkEmma) September 19, 2024
5.
The initial study also found that right leaning people had less gray matter in the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC), a region linked to error monitoring, belief updating, and affect-regulation.
4/9 pic.twitter.com/EzT28zI43g
— Emma (@MonkEmma) September 19, 2024
6.
So increased areas in the part of the brain associated with fear, anxiety, anger and threat, and decreased area in the effect-regulation, belief updating and error monitoring part
5/9
— Emma (@MonkEmma) September 19, 2024
7.
To be fair, the recent study, the one being reported on in the Mail, replicated the first findings on the fear part but not the second findings
6/9
— Emma (@MonkEmma) September 19, 2024
8.
So where did THAT headline come from??
Well, who knows ♀️
A search in the Daily Mail article for “compassion” comes up with the headline and the repeat of the headline at the end.
It’s not used in the article – not once.
Nor is any similar word used.
7/9 pic.twitter.com/RMeIrTYvkZ
— Emma (@MonkEmma) September 19, 2024
9.
Maybe it was in the study report?
Nope!
8/9 pic.twitter.com/lx3mMFovR7
— Emma (@MonkEmma) September 19, 2024
10.
So to sum up:
A study that found Conservatives are more likely to have increased areas of the brain associated with fear, anxiety and depression, lead to a @MailOnline headline claiming conservatives were more compassionate!
WTF?! #ToryLies#RightWingPress
9/9
— Emma (@MonkEmma) September 19, 2024
Emma descrives herself as a ‘molecular biologist who fights misinformation [and] will continue the good fight’ and you can find her on Twitter – @MonkEmma – here!
And here are just a few of the replies (and her responses) it prompted.
If it comes from the Mail it can’t be trusted.
— Helen Salmon – Chippy person Back to square one (@HelenSalmon2) September 20, 2024
The study is good. The Mail headline is completely fictional!
— Emma (@MonkEmma) September 20, 2024
Which emotions though? Fear? Greed? Paranoia?
— Was Once Loved (@WasOnceLoved) September 20, 2024
Yup – fear, aggression, anxiety….
— Emma (@MonkEmma) September 20, 2024
Why not ask @emilynstearn who put her name to that pile of steaming horseshit…
— Dr. Hans Zarkov (@kingofallt1me) September 19, 2024
To try and be fair – I believe the headlines are usually written by someone else.
The article is actually fairly factual – it’s just the headline that is from another planet!
— Emma (@MonkEmma) September 19, 2024
Well, emotion centre doesn’t sound like empathy centre, so could be anger, self-righteousness, sadism, whatever. Haven’t read the article. And most press claims like this are drivel. This is certainly self-serving.
— Mark Donovan (@BlakMark55) September 19, 2024
I’ve covered it all in the thread so you don’t have to read the article!
— Emma (@MonkEmma) September 19, 2024
reading the Daily Mail will increase fear, anxiety and beleaving all those lies cannot be good for anyone
— Andrew M (@fkcream) September 19, 2024
Well quite!
It was quite an interesting, and unsurprising finding.
It’s what fuels the Right – fear, anxiety, perceived threats wherever they look.
OMG – a Woke Scone
— Emma (@MonkEmma) September 19, 2024
To conclude …
@monkemma checks the science and finds the headline doesn’t even match the story let alone the research findings. https://t.co/oTGGmP2Oec
— Paul Nettleton Liberal Democrat (@PaulANettleton) September 20, 2024
And also.
Fact checking the Daily Heil is a job even Sisyphus would turn down
— JimmyJangles2 (@JimmyJangles888) September 20, 2024
I quite enjoy it!
— Emma (@MonkEmma) September 20, 2024
Source @MonkEmma