Tipsheet

Baby, I Love it When You're Wrong.

No, I mean I actually enjoy it. That's what the M.R.I. says, at least:

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. (emphasis mine)

This information comes from what sounds like a very small experiment on 30 men who described themselves as committed Republicans or Democrats.

I'm curious what would happen if the same experiment were done on women. I don't have a prediction; I just think they're conspicuously absent from the study. Of course, the audience for political news (at least on the Web, where I'm familiar with the stats) is roughly 65 percent male, so perhaps that's why.

Well, something to watch out for when you're next jousting with a liberal buddy.

H/t Marginal Revolution