Inheriting Politics

Wired to be Weird

In preparation for the upcoming mid-term elections in the United States (REMEMBER TO VOTE ON NOVEMBER 6TH !), Bo and I chat about how much of a person’s politics are inherited genetically from their parents, as well as some companies that are entirely devoted to trying to make you vote in a certain way. I learned quite a bit prepping for this conversation, and suffice it to say that I was pretty surprised with what I learned.

Note about the recording: if you can’t tell, we’re using a new audio set-up (thank you Patreon & Twitter supporters!!!). While we have gotten rid of some of the ambient noise – at least as much noise as you can in a Philly apartment – we’re clearly lacking pop-filters on this recording. So, apologies for the heavy Ps and Bs on this one; a pop-filter has been ordered, and I tried to edit out the worst of them.

References

1. Kandler C, Bleidorn W, Riemann R. Left or right? Sources of political orientation: the roles of genetic factors, cultural transmission, assortative mating, and personality. J Pers Soc Psychol. 2012 Mar;102(3):633-45. doi: 10.1037/a0025560. Epub 2011 Oct 10. PubMed PMID: 21988277.

2. Friesen A, Ksiazkiewicz A. Do Political Attitudes and Religiosity Share a Genetic Path?. Political Behavior, 1–28. doi:10.1007/s11109-014-9291-3

3. "The Genes of Left and Right" in SA Mind 27, 3, 9-10 (May 2016) doi:10.1038/scientificamericanmind0516-9

4. Kornadt AE, Hufer A, Kandler C, Riemann R. On the genetic and environmental sources of social and political participation in adolescence and early adulthood. PLoS One. 2018 Aug 24;13(8):e0202518. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0202518. eCollection 2018. PubMed PMID: 30142159; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC6108469.

5. K. Randall, “Neuropolitics, Where Campaigns Try to Read Your Mind,” The New York Times, 21-Dec-2017. [Online]. Available: https://www.nytimes.com/2015/11/04/world/americas/neuropolitics-where-campaigns-try-to-read-your-mind.html. [Accessed: 06-Apr-2019]