The Genetics of Politics?
February 16th, 2008 -- Posted in World Politics | No Comments »Well I was walking through Centra (convenience store in Ireland) today when I caught the headline of one of the magazines:
You can even see the price on the magazine in Euro’s which I did not feel like taking off in the scan. This cover is the reason for my title today since I am one of those people who believe nature more than nurture and I think science has more than proven that since the completion of the Human Genome project in 2003. Unfortunately I cannot even provide a link to this article because NewScientist requires you to pay to view the article so I will try to summarize as best I can while interjecting my comments as I see fit.
As you guessed, scientist have postulated that the reasons why liberals cannot convert conservatives to their way of thinking is because people are born with a genetic predisposition to a certain side of the political divide. I was discussing this with my family over the dinner table today and I have figured out that my mom and dad are both liberals in a certain sense of the word, so is my older brother and little brother and myself of course. My parents were liberal, does that make me liberal? I would like to think so since that means I need to find a liberal wife otherwise I might have a child with a chance of being conservative which would be a first for my family I think.
Some interesting excerpts from the article (results obtained from a survey of 20,000 people in 12 countries):
1. People who scored highly on a scale measuring fear of death, for example, were almost four times more likely to hold conservative views.
2. Those who expressed interest in new experiences tended to be liberals
3. The genes involved are 5HTT and MAOA
4. Tasks that involve dealing with conflicting information, for example, are known to activate an area of the brain known as the anterior cingulate cortex. Since liberals are generally more open to conflicting ideas, activity in this area of the brain would be expected to differ between them and conservatives.
5. All this being said, there are no shortage of critics when discussing the linkage between biology and politics.
This article and more can be found at NewScientist so please take some time to stop by there. I really enjoyed reading this article but the core point and last line states that we should be more accommodating to the other side since perhaps they were born with their views. I think many of us can remember times when we have tried to influence a family member or close friend on our views. Quite recently I was having lunch with two friends of mine and told them that I believe Taiwan should be independent, both my friends were citizens of China and could not believe I actually said that and firmly corrected me saying that Taiwan belongs to China. Needless to say the discussion degenerated quite quickly with me and my two friends not being quite happy at the end of it.
Reflecting on that discussion I realize that my friends were reflecting their upbringing in the PRC as well as the genetics of their parents who were born in the Mao Zedong era. They also felt that I was talking down to them as the “American influence”, but after a few days I realized they are entitled to their thoughts but this subject won’t be discussed again.
I have mentioned this before but at the election heats up, despite what the politicians may say, we need to look at our views as a product of our upbringing as well as our genetics. We also need to spend less time arguing about it and spend more energy trying to find the most firm middle ground where both sides can be happy.
