Originally Posted by mixedmedia

From what I've learned about the brain, the size of any one component does tend to correlate with the intensity of its neural activity - more networks, more myelinated axons, more bulk. Not only is the amygdala associated with fear reactions but it is also heavily involved in almost all of the emotional responses that make up our 'survival instincts' as well as the retention of emotion-based memory so obviously the quality (hardship or relative ease) of one's life is going to affect the size of the amygdala, as well. So I'm not sure you could easily make a case that its size necessarily correlates with political opinion. After all, I'm a liberal and I certainly do fear the consequences of unchecked conservatism in this country. I quite literally fear it.

Overall, I tend to agree with Baraka's observation that the brain is a very complex organ and there are many 'higher' brain functions that contribute to the formation of things like values and opinions (not to mention experience and memory) - so much so that I would think it to be quite difficult to pin down something as vague as 'political attitude' on the observation of one area of the brain.

Originally Posted by The_Jazz

Am I the only one that thinks that the study is far too small to draw any conclusion beyond "huh, that's kinda interesting" from?

I will be shocked if this turns out to be much more than an interesting aside.