The 2000 presidential election may have hung on some hanging chads, but new evidence suggests that a handful of genes may be influencing election outcomes more than we think.
Genetic studies find that nature may be playing as significant a role as nurture when it comes to political traits. Certainly, learning and environmental factors play a role too in the development of political opinions, but new gene studies indicate that people may have natural tendencies when it comes to political ideology and partisanship, voting behavior and engaging in political violence.
In a review article published Monday in the journal Trends in Genetics, lead author Peter Hatemi, a professor in the political science, microbiology and biochemistry departments at Pennsylvania State University, said that making people aware of how their political behavior is shaped has implications for foreign policy, public health, attitude change, reducing discrimination and much else.
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