Politics Gene Related?

[Plenoptic 0]

Well searching through the news today over at Yahoo I found an article that says that although politics may not be in your blood it could be part of genetics. They say that you can inherit political genes from your parents. How have they gone about studying this? They asked questions concerning politics to identical twins and fraternal twins and identical twins seemed to answer more of the same than fraternal twins. Scientists theorize it could be because they share the same genes. Some think it's absurb and incoherent and others don't want to throw out the possibility and say it is plausible. It very well could just be the environment they grow up in.

I really do wonder who in the world decides to research this stuff. I don't really know what to think about this. In the end I really don't think it's very likely and it's more of the environment you grow up in. Because you have the freedom to think and research people and decide who you want to vote for or debate for. You may be influenced by your parents but not genetically. Then again you never know, it could be another breakthrough in science.

Link to Article: http://forums.xisto.com/no_longer_exists/

Edited November 4, 2006 by Plenoptic (see edit history)

[jlhaslip 4]

The more you study something, the more you know about less and less; until eventually, you know absolutley everything there is to know about nothing.Forget where I first heard this, but there be some truth in it.

[beeseven 0]

It's certainly possible, we really don't know how beliefs are passed down. It seems like something that would be more affected by conditioning, though.

[lindsaybernsen 0]

Since genetics may predispose you to emotionality, but cannot predetermine your thoughts, it seems highly unlikely that they play into political inclination. Nurture usually wins out over nature.Besides, such an experiment seems slightly biased. Identical twins are usually thought of as one entity and as such their parents tend to pass their views onto them wholly with less discussion. Fraternal twins are less likely to be confused and will consider their lives to be more distinct from one another. This gives them more opportunity to form seperate opinions. Support of political party is almost always based off of opinions about specific problems and-though many have party loyalty- can vary with major issues such as health care, social security, the environment, abortion, oil prices, tax cuts, the space program, ect. These are highly individual ideas and may have been influenced by a strong pull from their parents (with religion, morality, ect.), but it is silly to claim that any simple survey could have picked up all the nuances which could have caused a given answer.

[husker 0]

It's hard to say, I do think a lot of our thoughts and ideas come from other family members. At least this idea would explain the Bush family. I think some people grow up in an environment where politics are all over, but a lot of the power to enjoy politics probably comes from someones else in the family, although it is hard to say. I don't think they will get to far with this research, which is something like Jlhaslip said.

[Plenoptic 0]

Ya and you know after thinking about this more there really isn't anyway this study could really be worth something. Identical twins are one split into two making them identical (fertilized eggs). Fraternal twins are two separate fertilized eggs. So if you think about it it isn't genes that makes them the same in politics but the way they think and come about something. That and also how much they are exposed to in politics and what not and how their parents and friends influence them.

[brandice 0]

To test this theory properly, they'd have to seperate the twins from each other and their biological parents and then compare their views on things 25 years later or something.

[Plenoptic 0]

To test this theory properly, they'd have to seperate the twins from each other and their biological parents and then compare their views on things 25 years later or something.

That's probably a good idea. Of course that would bring in ethics and what not like moral rights. If twins though were separated at birth they should go and have them take the same test. See if they still tend to think the same and do the same in not only politics but other things. I think they have actually done that.