Passing Prop 8: Divided reactions from gays

Over the last few days, we've seen a sudden surge in rallies and calls to protest the LDS church. Sites such as Mormons Stole Our Rights are popping up as well as calls to boycott Utah. How does a community targeted by discrimination respond to its attackers? Online discussion forums show a clear difference in opinion as to how we should approach the issue:

Enough with the damn Mormon bashing. This isn't some hate pissing match. Yes, they represented a disproportionate amount of the money behind Prop 8. They're organized. They have their shit together. Get over it. This shouldn't be about the victory of Yes on Prop 8, etc. This should be about the failure of the gay community to connect with voters. 52% of the California population isn't LDS, after all.

There is not a snowball's chance in hell that I will stop mormon bashing. They started this in 98 when they went all anti-gay in Hawaii. Fuck them and the polygamist horse they rode in on.

They should not have tax exempt status if they plan on lobbying on state or federal level. Freedom of religion also means freedom from religion. Their argument comes from a religious point of view.

The problem isn't JUST the Mormon Church. The problem that we're facing is more complex than that. We're the new black when it comes to hate . Gays are the cause to get behind if you're a Conservative an/or a bigot and you're pissed at the world. Because we're the only game left in Town. These people who voted for this ballot measure knew what they were doing. They knew that gay men and women are and will never be any real threat to them. They knew that they had to rally around lies to support it. But will they come out and say they supported it? Hell No they won't because they Know what a heinous piece of crap they voted for. That's why it's time to expose all of them. From the ones who paid money for the cause to every one who went into that voting booth and pulled that metaphorical lever. Time to turn on the kitchen light and let the cockroaches run for cover.

This whole thing has gone a little too far, in my opinion. Everyone wants someone to blame. The Mormons, the Blacks, the Latinos, the Gays (for being complacent). Part of my opinion on not hating on others the way we have been hated on, is not to stoop to their level so much so that we become hypocritical. Just because one group does something that is negative and wrong, doesn't mean we should do the same thing back.

I hate to tell you this, stud, but the LDS Church isn't just a bunch of pushovers. They have deliberately, with great organization and strategy, done evil to us, and they deserve to suffer for it. Also, you can't ignore the fact that they supplied the vast majority of funding to propagate these lies. NOT ALL Mormons. I have lots of Mormon friends, I don't hate Mormons. But their church and their organization is going down, period. I agree-- my Mormon friends are some of the best, most moral, family-oriented people I know. But the LDS church and its entire hiearchy deserves to burn.

Read more.

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Many gays and lesbians (myself included) felt bittersweet towards the simultaneous victory of Barack Obama and the passing of Prop 8. How does a nation so seemingly in favor of progressive solutions pass a proposition that pushes the LGBT movement backwards (especially in the largest blue state)? Ultimately, it probably boils down to a difference in strategy.

WWOD (What would Obama do?): Four Lessons Gay Marriage Actvists Must Learn From Obama

Emerging field: neuromarketing

Forget surveys and focus groups. Verbalized opinions are confounded by cognitive biases that may hide how consumers might "really" feel about a product. At least this is what the emerging field of neuromarketing wants you to think. The potential for exploitation has even generated a Commercial Alert.

Is neuroimaging an effective tool for designing popular consumer products? The basic idea is simple: show participants a bunch of stimuli and record brain activity indicative of positive affect or feelings of reward. Those that generate the best responsiveness can become prototypes for future products. But there can be complications depending on the type of product being created and the stimuli being presented, especially when dealing with a daunting combinational space (see Goebel, 2008 for more).

But putting experimental design aside, isn't there something wrong with assuming that positive affect is the best indicator of a "good" product? Eliciting other emotions, such as sadness, can be just as "good" if not better.

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References

Goebel, R. (2008). Response to Karaszewski: Creating significant art products requries the brains of artists. Trends in Cognitive Science, 12, 172-173.

What would Sophocles do?

Obama has a Kenyan aunt living illegally in Boston. Obviously he's siding with immigration law, but this story just makes me feel so sad. Where is Antigone when you need her? Who is going to champion the laws of the oikos?

Left-wing brain vs. right-wing brain

When Fox News is bashing McCain, you know something's wrong. Looks like those flip-flop economic policies haven't been going so well with the conservative base. But hey, what do you expect from a system-shaking, bipartisan MAVERICK? Unfortunately for McCain, looks like no one told him what psychologists have know for a few years now: conservatives don't like change!

In a short and sweet experiment, Amodio and colleagues (2007) showed that liberals were more responsive to ambiguity and novelty, whereas conservatives preferred structure and persistence. Participants performed a Go/No-Go task (they had to press a key when "M" appeared on a screen, but had to withhold their response when a random "W" appeared), while error-related negativity (ERN) amplitudes were recorded.

Larger ERN = greater accuracy to the No-Go or "change" trials (in this case, the Ws)

Increased liberalism was correlated with larger ERNs, meaning liberals responded better to change than conservatives:

(click for full size image)

Jonathan Haidt also has a great talk on the psychology of liberalism and conservatism. He elaborates on people's affinity/aversion to change by examining personality factors and moral values. Watch it:

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References

Amodio, D. M., Jost, J. T., Master, S. L., & Yee, C. M. (2007). Neurocognitive correlates of liberalism and conservatism. Nature Neuroscience, 10, 1246-1247.