The Political Brain

The Political Brain

The Emergence of Neuropolitics

We have politics on our mind—or, rather, we have politics in different parts of our brains. In this path-breaking study, Matt Qvortrup takes the reader on a whistle stop tour through the fascinating, and sometimes frightening, world of neuropolitics; the discipline that combines neuroscience and politics, and is even being used to win elections.

Putting the 'science' back into political science, The Political Brain shows how fMRI-scans can identify differences between Liberals and Conservatives, can predict our behaviour with sometimes greater accuracy than surveys, and can explain the biology of uprisings, revolutions, and wars.

Not merely a study of empirical evidence, the book shows how the philosophical theories of, among others, Plato, Aristotle, and Spinoza can be supported by brain scans. Along the way, it also provides an overview of the state-of-the-art knowledge of the organ that shapes our politics. The book shows that if we rely on evolutionary primitive parts of the midbrain—those engaged when we succumb to polarised politics—we stand in danger of squandering the gains we made through the last eight million years.

  • Cover
  • Front matter
  • About the series
    • Title page
    • Copyright page
  • Contents
  • Foreword by Barbara J. Sahakian
  • Preface: The Brain in Political Research
  • Introduction: The State of Neuropolitics
  • Chapter One: The Brain: A Philosophical and Historical Introduction
  • Chapter Two: The Neuropolitics of Us and Them
  • Chapter Three: Social Neuroscience, Political Attitudes, and Election Campaigns
  • Chapter Four: The Listening Brain: The State We Ought to Be In
  • Epilogue: Inconclusive Scientific Postscript
  • Notes
  • Subject Index
  • Name Index
  • Back cover