Study: Political Preference Is Half-Genetic

Here's some interesting Friday night reading. A study has revealed that political preference may be genetic, based on studies with identical and fraternal twins.

The other factor that determines a person's political beliefs is biology. Research by John Hibbing, a University of Nebraska political scientist, showed that identical twins share more political beliefs than fraternal twins. They also, of course, share more genes.

"Forty, perhaps 50 percent of our political beliefs seem to have a basis in genetics," said Hibbing, whose studies were included in (NYU psychologist John) Jost's analysis. While genetics are unlikely to "hardwire" people into being liberal or conservative, Hibbing said that genes could make people more or less likely to have certain values or react to situations in a particular way.

John Jost has done several studies on political preference in the past, and most of them have fallen in the "breaking: water is wet" category. His piercing analysis has shown that conservatives prefer order and structure and the status quo (you're kidding, conservatives are conservative?), liberals are more open to new experiences and support social change (stop it, liberals are more liberal and progressive?), and that people become more conservative in states of uncertainty or when they fear death (also fairly obvious, though he did brain scans to prove it).

But because this particular research was done by a different scientist, I'm giving it a little more weight, although I'm not sure I agree with this final analysis.

This knowledge could pave the way to a more tolerant society, Hibbing said.

"If you think your opponents are not just being willfully bullheaded but rather have a kind of biological predisposition toward a set of beliefs, you might not spend as much time beating your head against the wall trying to get them to change," he said.

We've all come up against the "brick-wall conservative" in our lifetimes, and I'm sure the other side thinks the same thing (Actually, the Freeper thread on this very subject, which is pretty much full of trenchant observations like "I told you libs are stupid!!1!!," confirms this point). But regardless, if true I find this information useful.

We don't know the breakdown of this genetic disposition; how many liberals versus how many conservatives. And environment certainly still plays a role. But I do agree that the "lizard brain" can be something that's extremely powerful, and resistant to persuasion or even simple logic. Where can we go with that information? How can we tap into the lizard brains of genetic progressives who may be acting conservative out of fear or uncertainty? If the world is more stable, will people's natural liberal dispositions be more able to flourish?

I don't know if there are any answers to these questions, but it may be an interesting topic for discussion.