Voting genes: Are political views inherited? | Genetic Literacy Project

W.S. Gilbert wrote those lines back in 1882, based on a simple observation that signs of a person’s future political orientation and ideology often are evident during their childhood, and today we have scientific evidence that it’s true, at least in a certain sense. A decade ago, in the psychology journal Research and Personality, researchers from UC Berkley demonstrated clear associations between liberal vs. conservative political views in young adults and various personality traits recorded when the individuals were in nursery school. That finding raises the question of whether the roots of political beliefs can be traced back even even earlier than nursery school; namely, do such beliefs have any inherited component? Can your voting behavior and political views be predicted based on your genes?
,,,
Before you conclude from this that there must exist genes for leftwing and rightwing beliefs, a couple of caveats must be laid out. First of all, the study cited above was not published in a peer reviewed journal, but merely in Britain’s The Sunday Times. Second, there most certainly are possible non-genetic ways for parents to transfer their opinions to children. Hearing something over and over again through childhood is likely to affect your point of view, as are your experiences growing up and interactions with people inside and outside your family. The Sunday Times study actually acknowledges this, simply by not claiming that genetics accounts for 100 percent. The real question, therefore, is this: is there any scientific evidence supporting the idea that genes, or other aspects of biology, at least factor a person’s political views, or voting behavior. Looking at things from this perspective, it turns out that some relevant scientific investigations actually have been carried out.

Voting genes: Are political views inherited? | Genetic Literacy Project