It’s Australia Day, and I’m heading for the beach. While lying on the warm sand, or dipping into the cool blue Indian Ocean, I’ll spare a thought for those of you who are shivering in the frozen North.

I ran across this piece of research on a site called LiveScience.

Democrats and Republicans Both Adept at Ignoring Facts, Study Finds

The study observed brain activity in subjects who were asked to reconcile contradictory political statements. What they found was that subjects ignored the contradictions in their own point of view, but (surprise) had no trouble finding problems for the other team. And neurochemistry rewarded them heartily for it.

The test subjects on both sides of the political aisle reached totally biased conclusions by ignoring information that could not rationally be discounted, [Drew] Westen and his colleagues say.

Then, with their minds made up, brain activity ceased in the areas that deal with negative emotions such as disgust. But activity spiked in the circuits involved in reward, a response similar to what addicts experience when they get a fix, Westen explained.

The study points to a total lack of reason in political decision-making.

“None of the circuits involved in conscious reasoning were particularly engaged,” Westen said. “Essentially, it appears as if partisans twirl the cognitive kaleidoscope until they get the conclusions they want, and then they get massively reinforced for it, with the elimination of negative emotional states and activation of positive ones.”

So, a neurochemical payoff for the reduction of cognitive dissonance.

I didn’t like the title of the article at first (oh boy, another he-said-she-said), until I understood that they were talking about the phenomenon on the individual level. While individuals on either side do have trouble thinking critically about their own cherished viewpoints, there’s a case to be made that Republicans as a party benefit greatly from their current strategy of disinformation, noise, and obfuscation. Democrats, on the other hand, have real trouble getting the facts out there in public view, and would benefit if people didn’t ignore the facts quite so much.