Biology and political orientation
A number of studies have found that biology may be linked with political orientation.[1]
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[edit]Brain studies
[edit]Structural differences
A 2011 study by cognitive neuroscientist Ryota Kanai's
group at University College London published in Current Biology, found a correlation between
differences in political views and differences in brain structures in a convenience sample of students from University College London.[2] The
researchers performed MRI scans on the brains of 90 volunteer
students who had indicated their political orientation on a five-point scale
ranging from 'very liberal' to 'very conservative'.[2][3] Students
who reported more 'conservative' political views tended to have larger amygdalae,[2] a
structure in the temporal lobes that
performs a primary role in the processing and memory of emotions.
On the other hand, more 'liberal' students tended to have a larger volume of
grey matter in the anterior cingulate cortex,[2] a
structure of the brain associated with monitoring uncertainty and handling
conflicting information.[2][3] The
authors concluded that, "Although our data do not determine whether these
regions play a causal role in the formation of political attitudes, they
converge with previous work to suggest a possible link between brain structure
and psychological mechanisms that mediate political attitudes."[2] In
an interview with LiveScience, Ryota Kanai said, "It's very
unlikely that actual political orientation is directly encoded in these brain
regions", and that, "more work is needed to determine how these brain
structures mediate the formation of political attitude."[1][3][4][5]
[edit]Functional differences
A study by scientists at New York University
and the University of California, Los Angeles, found differences in how
self-described liberal and conservative research participants responded to
changes in patterns.[6] Participants
were asked to tap a keyboard when the letter "M" appeared on a
computer monitor and to refrain from tapping when they saw a "W." The
letter "M" appeared four times more frequently than "W,"
conditioning participants to press the keyboard on almost every trial. Liberal
participants made fewer mistakes than conservatives when they saw the rare
"W," indicating to the researchers that these participants were
better able to accept changes or conflicts in established patterns. The participants
were also wired to an electroencephalograph that recorded activity in their
anterior cingulate cortex, the part of the brain that detects conflicts between
a habitual tendency and a more appropriate response. Liberals were
significantly more likely than conservatives to show activity in the brain
circuits that deal with conflicts during the experiment, and this correlated
with their greater accuracy in the test. The lead author of the study, David
Amodio, warned against concluding that a particular political orientation is
superior. "The tendency of conservatives to block distracting information
could be a good thing depending on the situation," he said.[7][8]
In an fMRI study published in "Social Neuroscience,"
three different patterns of brain activation were found to correlate with
individualism, conservatism, and radicalism.[9] In
general, fMRI responses in several portions of the brain have been linked to
viewing of the faces of well-known politicians.[10] Others[who?] believe that determining political
affiliation from fMRI data is overreaching.[11]
[edit]Genetic studies
[edit]Heritability
Heritability compares
differences in genetic factors in individuals to the total variance of observable characteristics ("phenotypes")
in a population, to determine the heritability coefficient. Factors including genetics, environment and random chance can all contribute
to the variation in individuals' phenotypes.[12]
The use of twin studies assumes
the elimination of non-genetic differences by finding the statistical
differences between monozygotic (identical)
twins, which have almost the same genes, and dizygotic (fraternal) twins.[13] The
similarity of the environment in which twins are reared has been questioned.[14][15]
A 2005 twin study study examined the
attitudes regarding 28 different political issues such as capitalism, unions,
X-rated movies, abortion, school prayer, divorce, property taxes, and the
draft. Twins were asked if they agreed or disagreed or were uncertain about
each issue. Genetic factors accounted for 53% of the variance of an overall
score. However, self-identification as Republican and Democrat had a much lower
heritability of 14%.[16][17]
Jost et al. wrote in a 2011 review that
"Many studies involving quite diverse samples and methods suggest that
political and religious views reflect a reasonably strong genetic basis, but
this does not mean that ideological proclivities are unaffected by personal
experiences or environmental factors."[1]
[edit]Gene associations studies
"A Genome-Wide Analysis of Liberal and
Conservative Political Attitudes" by Peter K. Hatemi et al. traces DNA
research involving 13,000 subjects. The study identifies several genes
potentially connected with political ideology.[18]
[edit]Physiology
Persons with right-wing views had greater skin conductance response,
indicating greater sympathetic nervous system response, to threatening images than
those with left-wing views in one study. There was no difference for positive
or neutral images. Holding right-wing views was also associated with a stronger startle reflex as
measured by strength of eyeblink in response to unexpected noise.[1]
[edit]Evolutionary psychology
From an evolutionary psychology perspective, conflicts regarding redistribution of wealth may have been a recurrent issue in the
ancestral environment. Humans may therefore have developed psychological
mechanisms for judging their chance of succeeding in such conflicts which will
affect their political views. For males, physical strength may have been an
important factor in deciding the outcome of such conflicts. Therefore, a
prediction is that males having high physical strength and low socioeconomic
stratum (SES) will support redistribution while males having both high SES and
high physical strength will oppose redistribution. Cross-cultural research
found this to be the case. For females, their physical strength had no
influence on their political views which was as expected since females rarely
have physical strength above that of the average male.[19] A
study on political attitudes among Hollywood actors found that, while the actors
were generally leftist, male actors with great physical strength were more
likely to support the Republican stance on foreign issues and foreign military
interventions.[20]
[edit]See also
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[edit]References
1.
^ a b c d Jost, John T.; Amodio, David M. (13 November 2011). "Political ideology as motivated social cognition:
Behavioral and neuroscientific evidence". Motivation and Emotion 36 (1): 55–64. doi:10.1007/s11031-011-9260-7.
2.
^ a b c d e f R. Kanai et al. (2011-04-05). "Political Orientations Are Correlated
with Brain Structure in Young Adults".Curr Biol 21 (8): 677–80. doi:10.1016/j.cub.2011.03.017. PMID 21474316.
4.
^ "Politics on the Brain: Scans Show
Whether You Lean Left or Right". LiveScience. Retrieved September
25, 2012.
5.
^ Kattalia, Kathryn (April 8, 2011). "The liberal brain? Scans show liberals
and conservatives have different brain structures". New York Daily
News. Retrieved September 25, 2012.
6.
^ David M Amodio, John T Jost, Sarah L Master
& Cindy M Yee, Neurocognitive correlates of liberalism and
conservatism, Nature
Neuroscience. Cited by 69 other studies
9.
^ Zamboni G, Gozzi M, Krueger F, Duhamel JR, Sirigu A, Grafman J (2009). Individualism, conservatism, and radicalism
as criteria for processing political beliefs: a parametric fMRI study 4 (5). pp. 367–83.doi:10.1080/17470910902860308. PMID 19562629. Zamboni G, Gozzi M, Krueger F, Duhamel JR,
Sirigu A, Jordan Grafman. National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD, USA
10.
^ Kristine Knudson et al. (2006-03). "Politics on the Brain: An fMRI Investigation". Soc Neurosci (PubMed preprint (Soc Neurosci)) 1 (1): 25–40. doi:10.1080/17470910600670603. PMC 1828689. PMID 17372621.
11.
^ Aue T, Lavelle LA, Cacioppo JT (July 2009). Great expectations: what can fMRI research
tell us about psychological phenomena? 73 (1). pp. 10–6. doi:10.1016/j.ijpsycho.2008.12.017. PMID 19232374.
12.
^ Raj A, van Oudenaarden A. 2008. "Nature,
nurture, or chance: stochastic gene expression and its consequences."doi:10.1016/j.cell.2008.09.050 PMID 18957198
13.
^ A twin-pronged attack on complex traits,
N. Martin, D. Boomsma and G. Machin. (1997). Nature Genetics, 17, 387-92.
10.1038/ng1297-387
14.
^ Jon Beckwith and Corey A. Morris. Twin
Studies of Political Behavior: Untenable Assumptions? Perspectives on Politics
(2008), 6 : pp 785-791
15.
^ Handbook of Social Psychology, Volume 1.
Susan T. Fiske, Daniel T. Gilbert, Gardner Lindzey. p. 372.
16.
^ Carey, Benedict (June 21, 2005). "Some Politics May Be Etched in the Genes". The New York
Times. Retrieved September 25, 2012.
17.
^ Alford, J. R.; Funk, C. L.; Hibbing, J. R. (2005). "Are Political
Orientations Genetically Transmitted?". American Political Science Review 99 (2). doi:10.1017/S0003055405051579. edit
18.
^ Genome-Wide Analysis of Liberal and
Conservative Political Attitudes Peter K. Hatemi United States Studies Centre,
University of Sydney and Queensland Institute of Medical Research, Nathan A.
Gillespie Virginia Institute for Psychiatric and Behavioral Genetics, Lindon J.
Eaves Virginia Institute for Psychiatric and Behavioral Genetics, Brion S.
Maher Virginia Institute for Psychiatric and Behavioral Genetics, Bradley T.
Webb Virginia Institute for Psychiatric and Behavioral Genetics, Andrew C.
Heath Washington University St. Louis, Sarah E. Medland Queensland Institute of
Medical Research, David C. Smyth Queensland Institute of Medical Research,
Harry N. Beeby Queensland Institute of Medical Research, Scott D. Gordon
Queensland Institute of Medical Research, Grant W. Montgomery Queensland
Institute of Medical Research, Ghu Zhu Queensland Institute of Medical
Research, Enda M. Byrne Queensland Institute of Medical Research, Nicholas G.
Martin Queensland Institute of Medical Research, The Journal of Politics, Vol.
73, No. 1, January 2011, Pp. 1–15 ISSN 0022-3816 "The under-standing that
we cannot yet accurately map how genes influence brain processes and biological
mechanisms which in turn interact with our upbringing,s ocial life, personal
experience, the weather, diet, etc, to somehow be expressed in part as a
Conservative-Liberal orientation, is the exact reason that genome-wide analyses
are valuable and necessary for political science.
19.
^ Michael Bang Petersen. The evolutionary
psychology of Mass Politics. In Roberts, S. C. (2011). Applied Evolutionary Psychology. Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199586073.001.0001.ISBN 9780199586073. edit
20.
^ "Strong men more likely to vote
Conservative". The Telegraph. April 11, 2012. Retrieved September
25, 2012.
[edit]Further reading
·
Some Politics May Be Etched in the Genes - The New York Times,
·
Liberals and conservatives don’t just vote
differently. They think differently. - The Washington Post
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