this post was submitted on 10 Mar 2026
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Science Memes

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[–] cogman@lemmy.world 261 points 5 days ago (4 children)

So, the amygdala doesn't just impact fear response, it also does anger, anxiety, and stress. An overactive amygdala negatively impacts your ability to think clearly.

[–] fartographer@lemmy.world 63 points 5 days ago (2 children)

Just like alligators. They're so ornery because they have all them teeth and no toothbrush

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[–] BierSoggyBeard@feddit.online 20 points 5 days ago (1 children)

Which should mean that it would be implicated in conservative thought processes, being as they are so fear-and-anger-driven in everything they do.

[–] djsoren19@lemmy.blahaj.zone 20 points 5 days ago (1 children)

it's a bit of a "chicken and egg" problem, but yes studies show that conservatives typically have an overactive amygdala. now, is it overactive because they're conservative, or are they conservative because it's overactive? hard to say.

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[–] ALoafOfBread@lemmy.ml 181 points 5 days ago (1 children)

HA HA take that COMMIE you're braver than me due to your genetic superiority! ^oh ^wait

[–] mnemonicmonkeys@sh.itjust.works 133 points 5 days ago (3 children)

I didn't have fascists scientifically proving that they're cowards on my 2026 bingo card.

It's still just as funny as the flat Earthers that keep accidentally proving that the Earth is round

[–] anotherspinelessdem@lemmy.ml 18 points 5 days ago (1 children)

It's still just as funny as the flat Earthers that keep accidentally proving that the Earth is round

Which is itself extra funny because I believe they both knew this and measured its circumference in ancient Egypt using two faraway towers, if I'm remembering that episode of Carl Sagan's Cosmos correctly.

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[–] DarkFuture@lemmy.world 30 points 4 days ago

Conservatives don't know anything about the person they voted for. They don't know anything about how their government functions. They don't know anything about their Constitution.

I promise they don't know what an amygdala is or what it does.

[–] chaotic_ugly@lemmy.zip 34 points 4 days ago (1 children)

For the curious ones, from Psychology Today:

"A larger amygdala is primarily associated with increased anxiety, heightened emotional reactivity, and stress-related disorders, often acting as a hyper-active "threat detector" Symptoms frequently include persistent fearfulness, depression, irritability, and hypervigilance, as the brain over-processes neutral stimuli as threats."

Whoever made the original meme is an absolute moron.

https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/the-athletes-way/201311/the-size-and-connectivity-the-amygdala-predicts-anxiety

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[–] j4yc33@piefed.social 138 points 5 days ago (3 children)

Fun fact: Conservativism can be linked to Lead and/or Mercury exposure

[–] drath@lemmy.world 51 points 5 days ago (1 children)

Ah, the typical nazi idea of correlating random body measurements with complex behavioral and emotional patterns.

[–] Bloomcole@lemmy.world 26 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago)

You mean the Brit/American eugenics idea.
Hitler was a great fan of these racists so he sent a dr Mengele to study the superior Nordic race at Carnegie's American Eugenics Society.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Eugenics_Society_Exhibit_(1930s)._Image_from_Wellcome_Library.jpg

[–] definitely_AI@feddit.online 88 points 5 days ago (3 children)

The better educated you are, the more left leaning you tend to be:
https://www.pewresearch.org/politics/2016/04/26/a-wider-ideological-gap-between-more-and-less-educated-adults/

Conservatives tend to be dismissive of science and empirical evidence:
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2016/07/160713172717.htm

Higher verbal IQ correlates with liberal attitudes:
https://www.psypost.org/verbal-iq-predicts-political-participation-and-liberal-attitudes-twice-as-strongly-as-performance-iq/

Whatever this dumb shit is, is a reaction to that. As usual, they project their own shortcomings on their enemies.

In any case, what it comes down to is basic empathy and morality. If you care for others, you tend to vote left. If you care for only yourself and your self-interests, you vote right. There is no debating that, it's stated right there in the fucking ideology.

[–] The_v@lemmy.world 24 points 5 days ago

How can you not mention the awesome studies on bullshit.

https://jspp.psychopen.eu/index.php/jspp/article/download/6565/6565.pdf/

Conservatives fall for bullshit.

[–] sveltecider@lemmy.ca 15 points 5 days ago (1 children)

I appreciate the effort but conservatives are not reading any studies.

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[–] kibiz0r@midwest.social 124 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago) (1 children)

Fear is, famously, an excellent impetus for rational decision-making. (/s just in case)

[–] whotookkarl@lemmy.dbzer0.com 64 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago) (1 children)

Fear and rage force you to use unreliable heuristics instead of critical thinking and analysis resulting in poorer choices, it's why so much propaganda relies on triggering those emotional states to get you to stop thinking and accept the message. Less fear in decision making is a beneficial mutation.

[–] bizarroland@lemmy.world 23 points 5 days ago (6 children)

I've been saying this forever, but, like, these people really need to go back and reread Chicken Little. They're getting Fox News, getting scared, and reacting based off of what Fox is telling them, and not what the Chicken Little's are telling them.

The sky is not falling.

Take a deep breath, calm the fuck down, and chill. Everything's okay. As long as we stop freaking out.

[–] RamenJunkie@midwest.social 19 points 5 days ago (1 children)

Ha ha ha, Chicken Little is way above the reading level of most Conservatives.

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[–] baguettefish@discuss.tchncs.de 101 points 5 days ago (7 children)

I'm autistic and have an oversized amygdala but that doesn't stop me from being leftist. I just feel compassion for everyone human. Still struggling with the compassion for animals that I eat.

[–] Swedneck@discuss.tchncs.de 62 points 5 days ago (3 children)

ironically i fear the SHIT out of right wingers, because they seem to actively want me to suffer before i die, for the crime of not being able to have a job

[–] SoloPhoenyx@lemmy.world 26 points 5 days ago (5 children)

To be fair, they want everyone but themselves personally to suffer and die.

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[–] deacon@lemmy.world 28 points 5 days ago (28 children)

Veganism is my unattended moral compromise. I am positive that future generations will look at us and our factory farming and, aghast, see us as the monsters as we are - much like we look back at slaveowners, even those who were against the institution at the time.

Since I am not living in or near the wild and not hunting for my own food, it is clear to me that veganism is the only real moral choice, and yet I still participate.

I am complicit in this delightful supreme pizza and complicit in this breaded chicken sandwich.

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[–] GaMEChld@lemmy.world 30 points 4 days ago (1 children)

OMG they are so detached from reality that they are bragging about being terrified?

[–] lessthanluigi@lemmy.sdf.org 10 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago) (1 children)

I'm guessing they think it helps them wake up and see the truth that they are being exploited on, while they see people with a smaller amygdala as like mindless sheep that just takes in any info and takes that as doctrine.

The thing that they don't consider though, is that fear and anger is often a form of control.

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[–] ArseAssassin@sopuli.xyz 34 points 4 days ago

I'M AFRAID OF EVERYTHING LIKE A REAL MAN!

[–] sp3ctr4l@lemmy.dbzer0.com 73 points 5 days ago (2 children)

POV:

You just aggravated someone with an 'undersized' amygdala.

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[–] Kolanaki@pawb.social 67 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago) (3 children)

No wonder Republicans are so phobic of everything. They got overinflated amygdalas. Amygdalas so big they look like this:

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[–] Dozzi92@lemmy.world 36 points 5 days ago (2 children)

Went to a Mediterranean restaurant for dinner with my wife. We celebrated her birthday, and so decided to check the dessert menu. We generally don't get dessert, just never really lie thing, but this menu has a dessert called amygdalopita, which piques my interest. Why would they name it after part of the brain?

And so upon further research, we discovered that the Greek word αμύγδαλο (amýgdalo) means almond. And this really got my wheels turning, because it brought back memory of EMT classes, way back in like 2003, where they talked about the amygdala being named such due tonit being almond shaped.

So I like a dessert that not only tasted great, but also helped me make connections, maybe fire off some neurons I hadn't in a while.

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"I'm afraid more often and that's why I'm a terrible person!"

[–] zd9@lemmy.world 52 points 5 days ago (4 children)

Conservatives are more afraid of everything, and respond in anger. How the fuck is that "better"?

[–] Soup@lemmy.world 17 points 5 days ago

Those are “manly” emotions! But also don’t forget that we are better for running countries because we’re so calm and cool.

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[–] YiddishMcSquidish@lemmy.today 19 points 4 days ago

"I'm more scared than you!" Is a weird flex.

[–] Tollana1234567@lemmy.today 29 points 5 days ago

conservatives have a hyerptrophied amygdala due to always constantly feeling fear.

[–] alt_xa_23@lemmy.world 11 points 4 days ago

I'm a leftist and I have an anxiety disorder! Checkmate, conservatives

[–] mechakid37@retrolemmy.com 28 points 5 days ago (2 children)

"Be afraid." We have people posting "Be afraid." with 0% irony.
What?

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[–] gray@lemmy.ml 40 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago) (3 children)

Amygdala's wardrobe in "A Phantom Menace" was overactive

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[–] G3NI5Y5 12 points 4 days ago

That would actually make a lot of sense.
And it's wild to brag about it.

[–] SethTaylor@lemmy.world 24 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago) (1 children)

Tiny amygdala

Big dick

Hat3rs will h8

Sanders 2028

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[–] flolomander@mander.xyz 10 points 4 days ago

Hi, I'm a coward bc I'm not a leftist isn't the flex you think it is.

[–] chunes@lemmy.world 9 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago) (1 children)

Funny how conservatives aren't afraid of disease. You probably need a decent frontal lobe for that.

[–] bstix@feddit.dk 7 points 4 days ago

They are so afraid that they pretend to ignore diseases all together.

[–] TheEighthDoctor@lemmy.zip 10 points 4 days ago

I got mine removed and now I'm seizing the means of production.

[–] NigelFrobisher@aussie.zone 16 points 5 days ago

Ironic that right-wingers seem to be particularly enamoured of the “It’s afraid” meme then (doubly ironic that it’s from an anti-fascist parody).

[–] sangeteria@lemmy.ml 17 points 5 days ago (2 children)

who need they amygdalussy ate

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[–] ArbitraryValue@sh.itjust.works 21 points 5 days ago (6 children)

I've seen some interesting discussion of this linked to the idea of survive/thrive strategies. Is the world a dangerous place that calls for avoiding risks and protecting what you have, or is it full of opportunities and calls for exploring and being open to novelty? Neither inclination is fundamentally wrong. But I'm not sure how to reconcile that with modern "rightists" who want to burn down the system and aren't conservative in the lowercase-C sense.

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[–] El_guapazo@lemmy.world 16 points 5 days ago

The average American reads at an elementary school level, and many are functionally illiterate. Here is a case in point.

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