Is political ideology inheritable?

To what extent do genes influence the development of one political ideology or another?

The most common perception of how our way of thinking is shaped is that it is caused by environmental elements, such as family, school and social context.

However, science seems to disagree. There are several aspects of our way of thinking that seem to depend on our genes, which has motivated researchers to tackle a very complex issue: political ideology.

Is political ideology inheritable? Over the last five decades, attempts have been made to resolve this question, providing a sobering answer.

• Related article, "What is Political Psychology?"

To what extent is political ideology inheritable?

For some time now, psychologists and scientists interested in politics have been trying to find out what are the determining factors for a person to be a supporter of one ideological current or another. Political ideology is the set of beliefs that a person has regarding his or her idea of what an ideal society should be like, as well as having a political project of how to achieve it.

As can be seen from this definition, this aspect of each individual is extremely complicated, which has changed not only the way in which it is studied, but also the way in which it was treated as a construct.

Traditionally, political ideology was seen as a one-dimensional construct, with a continuum ranging fromTraditionally, political ideology was seen as a one-dimensional construct, with a continuum going from more liberal to more conservative, but it has been seen that it is actually multidimensional, involving various aspects more characteristic of economic and social dimensions.

Several studies in psychology have focused on understanding and explaining how personality and motivational factors influence political ideology. In collaboration with this, political scientists have focused on various factors that might be behind feeling predilection for one political project or another, including family socialization, demographic variables, and, consistent with what psychologists have seen.

But perhaps the most striking factor that has been taken into account has been behavioral genetics.. Research that has focused on this aspect has sought to elucidate whether political ideology is heritable, an object of study that has been gaining greater prominence in the last five decades.

Twin studies

Twin studies are a classic tool for determining the heritability of personality traits, diseases and other aspects. The basic idea behind them is to compare what is seen in monozygotic twins, i.e., those who are genetically identical or clones of each other, with dizygotic twins, who share about half the genes and are, in essence, like any other siblings.with dizygotic twins, who share about half of the genes and are, in essence, like any other siblings.

Generally, when it is seen that in monozygotic twins there is a greater similarity between a particular trait compared to dizygotic siblings, researchers take this fact as evidence that this particular trait depends on genetic factors, factors that both identical twins have inherited.

Thanks to these studies, it is possible to measure the heritability of a given trait, ie, the degree of variation in that trait attributed to genetic factors.. This idea should not be confused with that of what is the inherited proportion of that trait, but rather the percentage that depends on genetics. To understand it better, if we say that a given trait has a heritability of 0.30, we are saying that about 30% of the differences seen in individuals is attributable to genetic factors, while the remaining 70% would be due either to environmental factors or to stochastic phenomena.

Regarding the question of political ideology, several studies have reported that the heritability of this aspect would be close to 40%.. Likewise, some aspects that, to some extent, are related to political ideology have also been taken into account, such as social rules, order and behavior pattern, which have also been found to be heritable.

Ideology across the lifespan

Although twin studies are useful, one way to find out how heritable a trait is is to looking at how stable it is over the course of an individual's life and comparing it to the general population..

Regarding this, there is a rather divided idea in the general population. There are those who consider that political ideology is a very unstable phenomenon as one grows older, which would defend the idea that environmental factors are the ones that have more weight. On the other hand, there are those who consider that ideology is a very stable aspect throughout life, or at least has a predictable development, which would defend the idea that it is highly heritable.

However, and like practically everything else when it comes to explaining behavior and personality, political ideology is a factor resulting from the combination of genetics and environment and, in fact, there are periods of life in which one or the other is more important.

During childhood and adolescence, political ideology is more influenced by family socialization, school and leisure time companionship, as well as having witnessed emotionally tense, though not necessarily traumatic, experiences.In childhood and adolescence, political ideology is more influenced by family socialization, companionship in school and leisure time, as well as having witnessed emotionally tense, though not necessarily traumatic, experiences.

In adulthood and beyond, genes seem to carry more weight. This could be due in particular to the fact that, having passed the age of majority, many people leave their main family nucleus, moving into a rented apartment while studying at university or working in another municipality.

How do genes relate to politics?

Research has also put the spotlight on how genes might be behind the how genes may be behind the psychological mechanisms involved in political ideology.. That is, what is it that makes a set of pieces of DNA end up making the personality traits and ways of seeing the world that define us as, for example, progressive or conservative people.

Although there is strong evidence that there is a genetic basis for ideology, no direct link has been found between genes and our political worldview. This is not surprising, since political ideology is too complex a matter to expect a single gene or a small set of genes to explain why we vote for one party or another.

However, it does make sense to it does make sense to find out what the indirect relationship is between genes and ideology.. Ideology is strongly influenced by aspects such as personality traits, cognitive ability, cognitive style and religiosity, aspects that several research studies have shown to have a high heritable component. Based on this, it makes sense to think that ideology is inheritable, since aspects that define it are.

Bibliographical references:

• Dawes, C. T., and Weinschenk, A. C. (2020). On the genetic basis of political orientation. Current Opinion in Behavioral Sciences, 34, 173-178.
• Tuschman, A., (2013) Our Political Nature: The Evolutionary Origins of What Divides Us. United States. Prometheus.