Self-control

I am a quite compulsive person. I am very aware of my obsessions with food, fitness, reading, women(?), or for the same matter even with my job as a programmer and my effort of pretending as an economist. And when it comes to guilty pleasures, I would indulge myself in them just as an average Joe.

At the same time, however, I do have a strong sense of self-control, at least in most cases. I am quite a disciplined person and I am proud of it. I would think that my self-control comes from my upbring and culturing. Now this new research in neuroscience says that it might be actually due to the wiring my brain:

Halting the action activated the dorsal fronto-medial cortex, or dFMC (also known as Brodmann Area 9), which is further forward in the brain than the SMA, as well as insular cortex. The authors concluded that the dorsal medial frontal cortex was the source of the inhibitory signal....

I know this conclusion is very preliminary and a healthy skepticism is warranted, but what the heck, next time when I lose my self-control, I could just well blame on this SOB(Same Old Brain).

Liberal

I am very aware of the confirmation bias here, but this just makes sense to me:

Exploring the neurobiology of politics, scientists have found that liberals tolerate ambiguity and conflict better than conservatives because of how their brains work.

Previous psychological studies have found that conservatives tend to be more structured and persistent in their judgments whereas liberals are more open to new experiences. The latest study found those traits are not confined to political situations but also influence everyday decisions.

Having recognizing my predisposition toward liberal views, it might be beneficial for me to have a bit more structure and principles in my life, after all a balanced world view is what I've been after, even though I honestly don't know how they will turn out to be in the end.