Why Do Conservatives Repeat the Same Choices - Political Beliefs and the Brain's Resistance Mechanisms

Political Fixation in Daegu and Yeongnam Region

The Daegu and Yeongnam regions have long established themselves as a core support base for conservative political forces. However, every time the People Power Party and its affiliated parties come to power, they repeatedly reveal their incompetence, and all the presidents produced by this faction have faced judicial outcomes resulting in prison sentences. Despite this, voters in the region rarely change their support for political parties. This phenomenon, which cannot be explained solely by political judgment abilities or lack of information, is rather related to a more fundamental issue of 'difficulty in change' rooted in the structure of the human brain and psychological mechanisms.

Resistance to Change and Psychological Mechanisms

Humans inherently feel a significant resistance to acknowledging that important choices they made in the past were wrong. This is because such acknowledgment is not just a matter of admitting a logical error, but rather a denial of their identity and judgment. This text aims to explain from a neuroscientific and psychological perspective why humans resist change through self-reflection, particularly in breaking away from deeply rooted elements of identity such as political beliefs. Through this, it seeks to provide a framework for a more fundamental understanding of the persistence of political tendencies displayed by voters in the Daegu and Yeongnam regions.

Cognitive Dissonance and Self-Justification

Humans experience significant psychological discomfort when there is a discrepancy between their beliefs or choices and reality. This is known as cognitive dissonance, and the brain activates a mechanism called self-justification to alleviate this unpleasant feeling. For example, when the political party one has supported for decades is revealed to be corrupt or incompetent, the brain is more likely to defend one's beliefs by reasoning such as 'the left is more dangerous' or 'the economy was doing well in the past' rather than outright denying the party itself.

Psychology of Identity and Group Belonging

Support for a political party often integrates into one's identity, extending beyond mere preference. This is especially true when regional identity and party support are combined, resulting in a stronger psychological defense. When cultural and regional narratives such as "I am from Daegu" or "We are inherently conservative" permeate identity, withdrawing support for a specific party is perceived not merely as a rejection of the party but as a threat to one’s entire self-identity. This is consistent with the role of the medial prefrontal cortex in the brain, which processes self-related information and filters out external criticism, coinciding with neural responses that reinforce existing beliefs.

Fixation of Memory and Neural Circuits

Beliefs and judgments are formed through synaptic connections in the brain and are reinforced through repetitive experiences and learning. Likewise, experiences of supporting a particular political party for an extended period become deeply ingrained in the brain's neural networks, leading to automatic judgments that repeat like habits. This is also connected to the dopamine reward system, where familiar political choices provide a sense of stability and predictability, resulting in feelings of reward. On the other hand, choices regarding new political forces are accompanied by instability and uncertainty, causing stress in the brain. As a result, the brain operates in a way that avoids change by repeatedly opting for familiar choices.

The Primacy of Emotion and the Ineffectiveness of Logic

People often believe that they think logically, but in reality, the influence of emotions on judgment is much greater. Especially in political judgments, emotional responses (amygdala activity) intervene more quickly and strongly than logic. This leads to emotions such as shame, anger, and fear arising first when facing the fact that 'I was wrong,' which weakens the possibility of logical reflection. Since emotions are processed in the brain as information directly connected to survival, the process of critically examining one's political beliefs becomes associated with emotional pain and is avoided.

Neuroscientific Limitations of Self-Reflection and Change

In order for humans to change, it requires the neuroplasticity to dismantle existing beliefs and accept new information. However, this does not work well in everyday environments. The brain operates in a way that tries to maintain existing circuits as much as possible because it consumes a lot of energy every time it makes a new judgment. Moreover, to change beliefs related to the self, there needs to be strong external stimuli like emotional shocks or life crises without such conditions, change becomes very difficult. From this perspective, it is extremely rare for humans to reach change through desperate self-reflection, and it can be said that the brain has an inherent property of not wanting to change on its own unless society as a whole structurally induces change.

The Importance of Understanding Voters in Daegu and the Yeongnam Region

The political fixation of conservative voters in Daegu and the Yeongnam region is not merely a political issue, but is deeply related to the fundamental workings of human psychology and brain structure. Acknowledging the possibility that 'one could be wrong' poses a threat to all internal systems of human beings, including self-esteem, identity, emotions, and neural circuits, and the brain reacts by attempting to evade that threat. Ultimately, for humans to genuinely change, simple information delivery or logical persuasion is insufficient emotional triggers, the courage to dismantle one's self, and a change in the social environment must occur simultaneously. This is a universal problem for all human groups, but it operates more strongly when intertwined with specific regional histories, identities, and political environments, making understanding this the first step toward political change.