Brain Imaging and Political Behavior

Abstract

Political science is often derided for being a “soft” science, one unable to generate hard predictions about political behavior, or without the ability to test its hypotheses, unlike physics, biology, or, among the social sciences, economics. Standards of hypothesis testing, data collection, and testing were unfairly seen to be lacking in comparison with the hard sciences. Accordingly, political scientists often had to struggle to have the knowledge produced about political behavior taken seriously. It would not be too remiss to identify an inferiority complex among political scientists, when they discussed the pantheon of scientific disciplines and their low position in it.

Citation

Friend, J.M. and Thayer, B.A. (2011), "Brain Imaging and Political Behavior", Peterson, S.A. and Somit, A. (Ed.) Biology and Politics (Research in Biopolitics, Vol. 9), Emerald Group Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 231-255. https://doi.org/10.1108/S2042-9940(2011)0000009012