Amazing! That was the headline. "Brains of Liberals, Conservatives Different." It was one of those stories with a headline that claims far more than is actually the case, but there is at least a hint of truth in it.

The difference between liberals and conservatives may run deeper than their feelings about welfare reform or the Iraq war. Their brains may actually work differently. It's obvious they do, but not the way the researchers are talking about.

New York University psychologist David Amodio and others found that a specific region of the brain's cortex is more sensitive in people who consider themselves liberals than in self-declared conservatives.

As usual, other researchers sound caution at the expression of such findings. Philip Tetlock of the University of California-Berkeley, expres…