A new study has found that genetics play a crucial role in someone’s political leanings, reported Medical Daily. Essentially, one bad piece of genetics could describe why some people vote for Republicans.
The National University of Singapore discovered that a specific variant of the gene DRD4, the “adventure gene,” influences whether someone is a liberal or a conservative. The gene plays a huge role in human behavior in that it determines how dopamine is released within the brain. A sample of 1,700 Chinese students subjected themselves for testing.
In liberals, the gene variations correlated with high-risk behaviors and attitudes, connecting those attitudes to openness and acceptance of change. For conservatives, the gene variation correlated with low-risk behaviors and attitudes, connecting those attitudes to resistance and reluctance to change. In short, conservatives tend to be less courageous and more fearful of things that are different, compared to liberals.
“Our findings have shown that despite a country’s political system or even culture, political ideology is in part hardwired by our genes,” Chew Soo Hong, a co-author of the study and Professor of Economics at NUS, said in a statement.
Of course, there are other contributing factors to one’s political ideologies: education, religious beliefs, and upbringing. However, the most striking of each factor is one’s genetics. One bad gene could make you a conservative.
