Researchers Find the ‘Liberal Gene’
By Jeremy A. Kaplan, FoxNews.com
Don’t hold liberals responsible for their opinion — they can’t help themselves.
A new study has concluded that ideology is not just a social thing; it’s built into the DNA, borne along by a gene called DRD4. Tagged "the liberal gene," DRD4 is the first specific bit of human DNA that predisposes people to certain political views, the study’s authors claim.
And the key to it all: Liberals are more open, said lead researcher James H. Fowler, a professor of both medical genetics and political science at the University of California, San Diego.
"The way openness is measured, it’s really about receptivity to different lifestyles, for example, or different norms or customs," he told FoxNews.com. "We hypothesize that individuals with a genetic predisposition toward seeking out new experiences [a measure of openness] will tend to be more liberal" — but only if they had a number of friends when growing up, Fowler cautioned.
This isn’t a typical gene association study," he said. "There’s a combination of genes and environment that matter."
Source: Friendships Moderate an Association between a Dopamine Gene Variant and Political Ideology
Jaime E. Settle,Christopher T. Dawes,Nicholas A. Christakis and James H. Fowler (2010).
The Journal of Politics, Volume 72, Issue 04, October 2010 pp 1189-1198
http://journals.cambridge.org/action/displayAbstract?aid=7909320
