I'm told that London cab drivers have brain changes, apparently thanks to the vast spacial memorization they need. The mental exercise results in physical changes.
I wonder if politician's brains show differences from the rest of us. Successful politicians (and con artists) have to be very good at making you believe them.
For one on one persuasion I'd guess that having a very good sense of how someone is feeling would be useful in adjusting your words and tone to do the job. There were noises about "mirror neurons" a few years back; I wonder what became of that. (Empathy doesn't mean you care.) If that's real, do politicians have them in larger number than average?
A crowd sense would presumably be similar.
To really succeed you have to persuade groups with no immediate feedback. Probably it is enough to know how to punch the buttons for the average, enough to persuade 40% of the listening audience. Which may not require any brains.
I gather that imagination doesn't have a single center in the brain, so I'm not sure lying would either.
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The intrepid explorer found the cannibal supermarket somewhere in Equatorial Guinea. There on the counter were brains - plumber, $3/lb; electrician, $4/lb; politician, $120/lb. He asked the clerk "what's with the politicians?". The clerk replied "Do you know how many of those suckers you have to clean to get a pound of brains?".
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