The Origins of Political Attitudes and Behaviours: An Analysis Using Twins

Abstract

Abstract.This article provides a behaviour genetic heritability analysis of several political issues, including social and economic conservatism, general interest in politics, attitudes toward the major Canadian federal parties, federal party identification and national vote choice. Substantial genetic effects were found for four of six political attitude scales, with heritability values ranging from 41 per cent to 73 per cent. Genetic effects are also reported for several individual items (including feelings toward the major federal parties, party identification and vote choice), with heritabilities from 33 per cent to 62 per cent. The implications of these results for conventional political analyses are explored. Also presented is a theoretical interpretation of political heritability that is derived from an evolutionary perspective which suggests that political personalities or temperaments have evolved that are analogous to the heritable personality structures proposed by psychologists.Résumé.Cet article propose une analyse sur l'héritabilité de la génétique du comportement concernant plusieurs questions politiques, y compris le conservatisme social et économique, l'intérêt général pour la politique, les attitudes envers les principaux partis fédéraux canadiens, l'identification à un parti et le choix de vote au niveau national. Des effets génétiques notables ont été recensés pour quatre des échelles politiques d'attitude sur six, les taux d'héritabilité s'étendant de 41 pour cent à 73 pour cent. Des effets génétiques ont également été recensés pour plusieurs autres éléments étudiés (y compris les sentiments envers les principaux partis fédéraux, l'identification à un parti et le choix de vote), les taux d'héritabilité allant cette fois-ci de 33 pour cent à 62 pour cent. Cette étude explore l'incidence de ces résultats sur des analyses politiques conventionnelles. Il s'agit aussi d'une interprétation théorique de l'héritabilité politique dérivant d'une perspective évolutionnaire, qui suggère que les personnalités ou les tempéraments politiques ont évolué et que ces derniers sont analogues aux structures de personnalité transmissibles proposées par les psychologues.

The Genetics of Political Attitudes and Behavior: Claims and Refutations

“…Alford et al (2005, and Bell et al (2009) did not report DZOS correlations. In Hatemi and colleagues' (2007) Australian twin study of voting behavior, the authors found "some substantial differences in the correlations of opposite sex [DZ] pairs compared to those for the same sex DZ pairs" (p. 442).…”

“…Most twin researchers in political science use the trait-relevant defi nition of the EEA (Bell et al, 2009, did not discuss the EEA). According to Medland and Hatemi (2009), one of the two "central questions of the equal environment assumption (EEA)" is "whether these differences [between MZs and DZs] infl uence the specifi c trait under analysis" (pp.…”

“…S ince at least 2005, political scientists Alford, Funk, and Hibbing (2005) and others have argued that differences in political orientation and behavior have an important genetic basis (others making such claims include Alford, Funk, & Hibbing, 2008a, 2008bBell, Shermer, & Vernon, 2009;Fowler, Baker, & Dawes, 2008;Hatemi, Alford, Hibbing, Martin, & Eaves, 2009;Hatemi, Medland, & Eaves, 2009;Hatemi, Medland, Morely, Heath, & Martin, 2007;Hatemi et al, 2010). Intuitively, we might reject such an idea out of hand, yet the past few years have seen claims that the link between genes and political behavior and attitudes has been established by twin research.…”

Biology, Ideology, and Epistemology: How Do We Know Political Attitudes Are Inherited and Why Should We Care?

“…Building from earlier studies by Martin et al (1986) and Eaves, Eysenck, and Martin (1989; see also Eaves and Eysenck 1974), they found that approximately half the population variance in a summative measure of political attitudes, the Wilson-Patterson Index, could be attributable to broad-scale heritability; only 11% was attributed to the twins' shared environment, with the rest owing to unshared environment. A rapidly evolving literature on the heritability of political attitudes and behavior has since emerged, and a variety of different samples, methods, and attitudinal and/or behavioral dependent variables has largely confirmed and extended these findings (e.g., Hatemi et al 2007Hatemi et al , 2010Bell, Shermer, and Vernon 2009;Eaves and Hatemi 2008;Klemmensen et al 2010).…”

Student protest and the culture of violence at African universities: An inherited ideological trait

“…Since October 2016 there have been no school in the anglophone regions of Cameroon due to student protest and constant clashes with the police (Fomunyam, 2017). Smith et al (2012), Bell et al (2009) and Hatemi and McDermott (2012a) argue that behavioural genetics has scientifically proven that political ideologies, and political or attitudinal orientation are inherited. Smith et al (2012) further note that, while no specific gene for a preference or ideological orientation exists, biological systems built by genes play an important role in mediating political attitudes.…”