Authoritarians Might Have Different Brains Than Other People

If you’ve ever wondered why people on the far ends of the political spectrum hold authoritarian beliefs, science may finally have an answer: their brains are weird.

A new study out of Spain’s University of Zaragoza, published in Neuroscience, poked in the heads of 100 young adults. It was discovered that authoritarian tendencies, whether you’re a Mussolini lover or a Maoist, come with some odd neural quirks. Like a lack of emotional regulation and a skewed sense of social reasoning as compared to those closer to the political center, who tend to be a little more even-keeled.

Using MRI scans and psychological surveys, researchers looked at how both right-wing and left-wing authoritarian types stack up against their more chill, centrist peers. Right-wing authoritarians, who favor traditional values and a tight leash on society via punishment, were found to have less grey matter in the dorsomedial prefrontal cortex—a brain region crucial for understanding other people’s thoughts and feelings.

Basically, less “walk a mile in someone else’s shoes,” and more “yell at strangers for pronouns until you’re foaming at the mouth.”

The Brain’s Physical Structure Might Explain Why Some Are Authoritarians

Meanwhile, the left-wing authoritarians showed reduced cortical thickness in the right anterior insula. This part of the brain is tied to emotional empathy and self-control.

The study also found that both camps tend to emotionally short-circuit under stress, making impulsive choices. Leftist authoritarians also seem to be especially prone to anxiety. Lead researcher Jesús Adrián-Ventura, who’s part of a group called PseudoLab, said this is the first study to separate authoritarianism into left and right rather than lumping it all together with no nuance or accounting for political perspective.

A lot more research is needed to verify these results, but it is looking like the next time someone tries to argue that their particular brand of extremism is the righteous one, remember: they might believe that because a specific portion of their brain might quite literally be underdeveloped.