Posted on 07/11/2014 5:49:11 PM PDT by nickcarraway
Earlier this week in the New York Times, Thomas Edsall had an interesting column about new research on the connection between genes and political beliefs — particularly those connected to social conservatism. But he dives a bit too deep into the gene pool (sorry) in his attempts to explain why humans tend to be so politically close-minded.
Specifically, referencing the work of researchers Amanda Friesen at Indiana University and Aleksander Ksiazkiewicz at Rice, he writes: “If these [political] predispositions are, as Friesen and Ksiazkiewicz argue, to some degree genetically rooted, they may not lend themselves to rational debate and compromise."
But we already know that political debates don’t lend themselves to rational debate and controversy — and we don’t need genetic explanations to understand why. There are all sorts of well-known psychological factors, from social influences to confirmation bias to motivated reasoning, that can help explain why we get locked into our political views and tend not to be open to changing them.
Sure, maybe, genes underlie these explanations and are therefore a factor.
(Excerpt) Read more at nymag.com ...
Here are a few journal articles dealing with genetics and politics:
" Social Dominance Orientation: A Personality Variable Predicting Social and Political Attitudes," Felicia Pratto, Jim Sidanius, Lisa M. Stallworth, and Bertram F. Malle (Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 1994, Vol. 67, No. 4, 741-763)
"Are Political Orientations Genetically Transmitted?," John Alford, Carolyn Funk, and John R. Hibbing (American Political Science Review Vol. 99, No. 2 May 2005, 153-167)
"Genetic Variation in Political Participation," James H. Fowler, Laura A. Baker, Christopher T. Dawes (American Political Science Review , Vol. 102, No. 2 May 2008, 233-248)
"Political Attitudes Vary with Physiological Traits," Douglas R. Oxley, Kevin B. Smith, John R. Alford, Matthew V. Hibbing, Jennifer L. Miller, Mario J. Scalora, Peter K. Hatemi, and John R. Hibbing (Faculty Publications: Political Science.Paper 26, 2008)
"Left or right? Sources of political orientation: the roles of genetic factors, cultural transmission, assortative mating, and personality," Christian Kandler, Wiebke Bleidorn, Rainer Riemann (Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 2012, 102(3):633-45)
"The genetics of politics: discovery, challenges, and progress," Peter K. Hatemi and Rose McDermott (Trends in Genetics, October 2012, Vol. 28, No. 10, 525)
NO. I have a family of cousins and one cousin and his wife are nutcase liberals. She was in the NEA for years, and all the others worked for private industry. The one lib thinks gov and unions is the answer. I’d hate to be at Thanksgiving or Christmas dinners in that family.
The culture or environment, determine it.
Yup, got a number of those around the Loop 1 and 35th street. I used to work at Camp Mabry and there were many times some got the single finger salute from me. I've seen one Wendy Davis sticker in Lago Vista. It was on a Prius.
I love your attitude. We are in the last days, evil abounds, natural disasters have increased, good is bad, it is a wonderful time th Savior is coming. We are chosen to fight in the last battle for the souls of men. Most people are good deep down. There are three types of sheep, wolves and sheepdogs they fight to protect the sheep who would not hurt a soul. Be a sheepdog.
It is a beautiful time to be alive.
I may have been a Dem in my youth, but when I was watching excerpts from the 1972 Democratic National Convention (I was 17 at the time), my first comment was “Good Lord, the Communists have taken over the Dems.” Not old enough to vote, yet I had considered myself a Scoop Jackson Democrat and was repulsed by McGovern.
Unless there is a gene for being rational. And one side has it. And the other doesn't.
All Liberal's are either ignorant or evil. That's why there are so many of them. Conservatives must be [Rational AND Good] while Liberals need only be [Ignorant OR Evil.]
So it's like Good and Rational are recessive genes, and Ignorant and Evil are dominant genes. For example, most people with Good and Rational genes are 56.4 percent more likely to get audited, at least recently.
Anyway - it's a silly analysis. If you gave a two part test that simply combined part A: logic with part B: history, and connected the scores to genetics/voting, that's all you'd need.
When one man is arguing that a fish is a fish, and another argues that a fish is a penguin ... and neither will budge .... you can't call the fish/fish guy closed minded.
One is ignorant, or if he wants to get other people to believe it so he can fleece them, then he's Evil. The other guy just wants to be left alone ... with his fish ... that are ... fish.
So this is all very stupid. And that's not surprising, since it comes from the Times, where the readership is all either Ignorant or Evil or both. A corollary is that All people who are either Ignorant or Evil think they are Intelligent.
In simple terms, no.
Since I have a strong stubborn gene pool, where does that put me? Scot-Celt dominates it.
And being female does not factor in. I am a very fact orientated person, where voting is concerned and where my Country is concerned.
Ditch TN RINO sen lamar alexander 62% dem voting record, oath breaker. Beat Lamar: TN State Rep Joe Carr
http://www.carrfortn.com/
lamar voted to gut Military Pensions, and he is going to vote on the nearly $4 Billion for these illegal kids. give him a call and a piece of your mind. 202 224 4924
My State rep debra moody is a 1 issue female R, I want her replaced with Rory Bricco http://rorybricco.com/, he is a very conservative Christian.
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