Brain scans of authoritarians show reduced grey matter in regions for empathy and social reasoning

Researchers at Spain's University of Zaragoza scanned the brains of 100 young adults and found that right-wing authoritarians have reduced grey matter in the dorsomedial prefrontal cortex, a region linked to empathy and social reasoning. The study, published in Neuroscience, suggests structural brain differences associated with authoritarian beliefs across the political spectrum.