Nature, Nurture And Your Politics

In this episode of Hidden Brain, Shankar Vedantam discusses with John Hibbing, a political scientist at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, what drives our political views. 

We believe that our stances on taxes, immigration or guns are shaped by our friends, parents or teachers. But what if there were something deeper in us that drives our political views? 

According to Hibbing's research, we could look at a brain scan result and know whether that person is a liberal or a conservative. He claims that there are genuine psychological differences between different political ideologies.

"30 or 40 percent of our political attitudes come from genetics."

Hibbing does not wish to stereotype, and yet the results of his study validate some of the most common clichés. Conservatives tend to have lots of things like sports memorabilia, whereas liberals have lots of books and CDs, and these tend to be more experimental. Conservatives prefer pure breed dogs and liberals are more likely to see pets as part of the family. 

These are just averages but show that political choices flow from deeply psychological differences. 

Ultimately, Hibbing recognizes that, despite the results, genes are not the only driver behind politics, and that our environment also plays an important role. 

A very interesting, engaging discussion that he thinks it may help us have more empathy for people who disagree with us.