Nature Or Nurture: How DNA May Guide Our Vote – And, By Extension, Our Religious Choices

A new book explores the impact of genetics on how people vote and on their political views. Can that information also explain susceptibility to fundamentalism, religious extremism – and haredi kiruv?

I think the answer to that question is yes.

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Comments

[Jeff]

I've been waiting for this for a long time. It's an area of research that's been making headway in recent years, but I'm a little surprised it's come as far as it has as quickly as it has.

I'm convinced the overwhelmingly large part of ideological orientation is genetic in origin, particularly the tendency toward authoritarianism, which is a hallmark of fundamentalism. Environment may reinforce it (and of course, we see it among Hasidim who are brought up to be completely dependent upon the dictates of their authority figures), but the foundation is innate.

[Yochanan Lavie]

My political and religious views have changed over time. Is my DNA being altered?

[Jeff]

I doubt they've changed all that much. You grew up liberal and became very left wing frum. You didn't become a fundamentalist.

I've heard similar statements from former evangelicals, but when I question them, they almost invariably tell me they were never really comfortable with the belief system, they asked questions for which they didn't get answers, etc. They were not the sort of evangelicals who blithely condemned billions of human beings to eternal torture. Those types simply don't change. They're congenital psychopaths.

[Hal]

I never thought of it as genetics, but clearly there are certain personality types that get attracted to Charedism.

[Sarek]

The only way to truly decide nature-nurture is to observe identical twins reared apart.

So we need one twin raised frum and one raised secular to study. Any volunteers?

[Yochanan Lavie]

Jeff: I was raised Reform, so it's true I'm on the left fringe of Orthodox, I am still more traditional than my parents. I am pro-capitalist, as long as there are checks and balances to ensure that workers and the poor are treated fairly. I am liberal on social issues, but moderate on fiscal issues. I am pretty conservative on foreign policy and the military. I am not a Democrat or Republican; I am independent. During my life I have been more or less liberal or conservative than I am now. So I think genes are not destiny. They do influence us, but so does environment.

[Jeff]

You've fluctuated within a narrow window. You haven't gone from one extreme to another.

[anuran]

The moment he starts quantifying how much of your politics is genetic a smart person will stop watching. It's clearly pseudoscience.

[Jeff]

http://www.tikkun.org/article.php/Heilman-neuroscienceandfundamentalism

[Jeff]

Political Orientations Are Correlated
with Brain Structure in Young Adults

http://blog.psico.edu.uy/cibpsi/files/2011/04/brains.pdf

The Surprising Brain Differences Between
Democrats and Republicans

http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2013/02/brain-difference-democrats-republicans

[Yochanan Lavie]

You've fluctuated within a narrow window. You haven't gone from one extreme to another.

Posted by: Jeff | October 15, 2013 at 09:48 AM

Maybe not, but I grew up eating trief and not keeping Shabbat. True, we lit candles and went to the Reform synagogue more than twice a year, but it's still quite a difference.

[Maskil]

I've long claimed there is a "frum gene." Sometimes a child with frum parents are born without it; sometimes the other way around.

[OurLadyOfPerpetualTsuris]

I've long been curious about studies on OCD, and if there is a higher than normal incident in Jews -- no matter what their affiliation today -- and if so, could the fact that our tradition of preceding and following almost every action with some kind of ritual have transformed our DNA? Or could these long-ingrained practices, even if abandoned by some families many decades earlier, be manifesting themselves in other behaviors or patterns of thought, which persist and are passed along more subtly? If it hasn't been studied, I'd be pretty surprised, as I think it could provide a great deal of valuable information and insight into OCD in general.

[OurLadyOfPerpetualTsuris]

Case in point: http://www.ou.org/publications/ja/5765/5765winter/ISOCDAJE.PDF

[Steven]

The operative word in the interview seems to be me to be"Education"..... It makes sense that a broad education would give one a more balanced view and also quite often seems to lead to a middle ground. I personally am a proponent of a strong well rounded liberal arts education, but I understand what the ultra religious are trying to do. However, I truly believe the Ultra religious are making a tremendous mistake by not at least incorporating science and Math into their studies. esp. since great Torah Scholars i.e like the Rambam were involved and studied the sciences.

[Nigritude Ultramarine]

I recently had to endure a Rosh Hashana sermon from a rabbi who asserted that Arabs hate Jews because it's in their mDNA. He used the Hagar/Yishmael story as his proof (viz. Arabs are innately cruel).

Science FTW! Um, not so much.

[plus.google.com/109010975018723580613]

Maybe not, but I grew up eating trief and not keeping Shabbat. True, we lit candles and went to the Reform synagogue more than twice a year, but it's still quite a difference.

http://carakumengobatipenyakit.blogspot.com/