Opinion | We Are Political Animals. So How Much Do Genes Matter?

Contributing sentiments towards policy:

55% : In separate work examining "the liberal-conservative ideological spectrum in world terms, communism to fascism not Democrats and Republicans," Rose McDermott, a professor of international relations at Brown, found that "about 60 percent of overall liberal-conservative ideology is genetically influenced."Both McDermott and Weinschenk stressed the dangers of misinterpreting their data.
52% : In "The Law of Group Polarization," Cass Sunstein of Harvard Law School argues that "people who are opposed to the minimum wage are likely, after talking to each other, to be still more opposed; people who tend to support gun control are likely, after discussion, to support gun control with considerable enthusiasm."
48% : -- the view that "acceptance of genetic influences is believed to be associated with intolerance, prejudice, and the legitimation of social inequities and laissez-faire policies."Instead, using data from two nationally representative surveys of a total of 1,200 respondents conducted by YouGov, the three found, first, that "genetic attributions are actually more likely to be made by liberals, not conservatives"; second, that "genetic attributions are associated with higher, not lower, levels of tolerance of vulnerable individuals"; and third, that "genetic attributions do not correlate with unseemly racial attitudes."
45% : Modern-day ideological issues, Bergner and Hatemi continue,surrounding sexual freedoms, mores and parenting are reflected in the prehistoric need for access to mates and to ensure the survival of offspring; policy views on immigration are little different than the primal need to recognize and protect against unknown, unlike and potentially "dangerous" others; codified laws, policing and punishment are akin to dealing with mores violators in hunter-gatherer societies; taxes and social welfare programs essentially revolve around questions of the best way to share resources for group living; foreign policy and military are matters of protecting one's in-group and defending against potential out-groups.
31% : In the U.S. now it may look like abortion, transgender bathrooms, immigration, war and welfare.

*Our bias meter rating uses data science including sentiment analysis, machine learning and our proprietary algorithm for determining biases in news articles. Bias scores are on a scale of -100% to 100% with higher negative scores being more liberal and higher positive scores being more conservative, and 0% being neutral. The rating is an independent analysis and is not affiliated nor sponsored by the news source or any other organization.