Are political leanings all in the genes?
By Jim Giles,
New Scientist
| 02. 02. 2008
The race to become the most powerful politician on earth is well
under way, and the US is gripped by election fever. In newsrooms and
bars across the land, liberals and conservatives are slugging it out,
trying to convince each other that their way of thinking is right. They
may be wasting their breath.
According
to an emerging idea, political positions are substantially determined
by biology and can be stubbornly resistant to reason. "These views are
deep-seated and built into our brains. Trying to persuade someone not
to be liberal is like trying to persuade someone not to have brown
eyes. We have to rethink persuasion," says John Alford, a political
scientist at Rice University in Houston, Texas.
Evidence
to support this idea is growing. For example, twin studies suggest that
opinions on a long list of issues, from religion in schools to nuclear
power and gay rights, have a substantial genetic component. The
decision to vote rather than stay at home on election day may also be
linked to genes. Neuroscientists have also got in on the act, showing...
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